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Duke  University  Libraries 

Correspondence 
Conf  Pam  #452 


READ  AND  HAND  TO  YOUR  NEIGHBOR. 


CORRESPONDENCE 


BirrwEEN  THE 


SECRETARY    OF    ¥AR 


AXD 


GOVE K NOR    BROWN, 

* 

GRdlWIXG    OUT     OF     A    REQUISITION     MADE 
UPON    THE    GOVERNOR     FOR    THE 

RESERVE  MILITIA    OFi  GEOR&U 

TO  BE  TURNED  OVER  TO  CONFEDERATE  CONTROL. 


f. 


BOUGHTON,  NISBET.  BARNES  &  MOORE,  Stath  Printers, 

UILLEDGIYILLE,     na,  'i^ 

1865. 


^^ 


OVv' 


George  Washington  Flowers 
Memorial  Collection 

DUKE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 


ESTABLISHED  BV  THE 

FAMILY  OF 

COLONEL   FLOWERS 


■M^^ 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


CONFEDERATE  STATES  OF  AMERICA, 
War  Department, 
Richmond  Va.,  Av^st  30,  1864 


1 


HIS  EXCELLENCY  J.  E.  BROWN, 

GovBRNoii  OF  Georgia, 

Milledgerille,  Georgia, 
Sir  : 

The  condition  of  your  State,  subjected  to  formidable  ia- 
yasion  and  menaced  with  destructive  raids  in  different  direc- 
tions by  the  enemy,  requires  the  command  of  all  the  fortes 
that  can  be  summoned  for  defence.  From  recent  official 
correspondence  submitted  to  the  Department,  it  appears, 
on  your  statement,  that  you  iiave  organized  ten  thousand 
or  more  of  the  militia  of  your  State,  and  I  am  instructed 
by  the  President  to  make  requisition  on  you  for  that  num- 
ber, and  such  further  force  of  militia,  to  repel  invasion,  as 
you  may  be  able  to  organize,  for  Confederate  service.  Those 
within  the  limits  of  General  Hood's  Department  will  report 
to  him  ;  those  outside,  to  the  Commandant  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant 

JAMES  A.SEDDON, 
Secretary  of  War. 


EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT,     ) 
MiLLEDGEViLLE,  Ga.,  September  12,  1864.  > 

Hun.  Ja/iies  A.  Seddon,  Secretary  of  War, 

Sir  :  Your  letter  of  30th  of  last  month  only  reached  me 
by  last  mail. 


You  refer  to  the  fact  that  I  have  organized  ten  thousand 
of  the  militiji  of  this  State,  and  say  you  are  instructed  by 
the  President  to  make  requisition  upon  me  for  that  number 
and  such  other  force  of  militia  to  repel  invasion  as  I  may  be 
able  to  organize. 

You  preface  this  requisition  by  the  remark  that  the  condi- 
tion of  my  State,  subjected  to  formidable  invasion  and 
menaced  with  destructive  raids  in  difterent  directions  by 
the  enemy,  requires  the  command  of  all  the  forces  that  can 
be  summoned  for  defence. 

In  common  with  the  people  of  Georgia,  I  have  abundant 
reason  to  i*egret  that  the  President  has  been  so  late  in  mak- 
ing this  discovery.  This  "formidable  invasion"  commenced 
in  May  last,  and  has  steadily  forced  its  way,  by  reason  of 
OTerwhelming  numbers,  through  the  most  fertile  section  of 
Georgia,  till  its  leader  is  now  in  possession  of  the  city  of 
Atlanta,  menacing  the  centre  of  tho  State,  threatening  by 
his  winter  campaign  to  cut  the  last  line  of  railroad  that 
connects  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  with  Alabama  and  Mis- 
sissippi. The  President,  during  most  of  the  time  since  the 
campaign  against  Atlanta  began,  has  had  at  his  command  a 
large  force,  said  to  number  some  30,000  men  in  Texas  and 
Louisiana.  Since  the  brilliant  victories  achieved  by  our 
armies  in  the  latter  State  early  in  the  season,  this  large 
force  has  had  no  enemy  to  confront  except  the  troops  ot  a 
few  garrisons,  who  were  in  no  condition  to  penetrate  the 
interior  of  the  country  or  do  any  serious  damage.  He  has 
also,  if  correctly  reported,  had  about  20,000  men  under 
General  Early,  invadingMaryland  and  Pennsylvania,  thereby 
uniting  Northern  sentiment  against  us  and  aiding  President 
Lincoln  to  rally  his  people  to  reinforce  his  armies.  About 
the  same  time  General  Morgan  was  raiding  in  Kentucky, 
and  General  Forrest,  the  great  cavalry  leader,  has  been  kept 
in  Northern  Mississippi  .to  repel  raids  after  the  country  had 
been  so  often  overrun  as  to  leave  but  little  public  property 
for  them  to  destroy. 

Thus,  reversing  the  rule  upon  which  most  great  Gen- 
erals, who  have  been  successful,  have  acted,  of  rapid  con- 
centration of  his  forces  at  vital  points  to  destroy  the  invad- 
ing army,  the  President  has  scattered  his  forces  from  Texas 
to  Pennsylvania,  while  a  severe  blow  was  being  struck  at 
the  heart  of  the  Confederacy;  and  Atlanta  has  -been  sacri- 
ficed and  the  interior  of  Georgia  thrown  open  to  further  in- 
vasion for  want  of  reinforcements  to.  the  army  of  Tennessee. 
Probably  few  intelligent  men  in  the  country,  except  the 
President  and  his  advisers,  have  failed  to  see  that  if  Generals 
Forrest  and  Morgan  had  been  sent  to  destroy  the  railroads 
over  which  General  Sherman's  supplies  have  been  transport- 
ed for  three  hundred   miles  through  an  enemy's   country^ 


and  to  keep  the  roads  cut  for  a  few  weeks,  and  at  the  sams 
time  the  forces  of  Geaeral  E.  Kirby  Smith  and  Major  Gen- 
eral Early,  or  even  half  of  them,  had  been  sent  to  reinforce 
Gen.  Johnston,  or  after  he  was  superceeded.  General  Hood, 
the  army  of  invasion  might  not  only  have  been  repulsed  and 
driven  back,  but  routed  and  destroyed. 

This  would  instantly  have  relieved  Georgia,  Alabama, 
Mississippi  and  Tennessee  from  invasion  and  raids,  and  have 
thrown  open  the  green  fields  of  Kentucky  for  the  support 
of  our  gallant  troops.  As  the  army  of  General  ShermaR 
is  the  only  protection  provided  by  the  Lincoln  government 
for  the  Western  States,  and  as  tiie  battle  for  the  possession 
of  a  large  portion  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  as  well  as  of 
the  Gulf  States,  was  t&  be  fought  in  Georgia,  justice,  not 
only  to  the  people  of  Georgia,  but  the  pe-ople  of  all  the 
States,  required  that  all  the  troops  which  were  not  actually 
necessary  to  the  defence  of  Richmond,  and  to  hold  the  ene- 
my in  check  at  the  most  vical  points  on  the  coast,  should 
have  been  concentrated  for  the  destruction  of  the  Federal 
army  in  Georgia,  which  would,  in  all  probability  have 
brought  the  war  to  a  speedy  termination. 

I  have  begged  iha  President  to  send  reinforcements  to  the 
*anny  for  the  defence  of  Atlanta  ever  since  the  enemy  were 
at  Etowah.  But  a  very  small  number  have  been  sent,  and 
if  I  am  correctly  informed,  part  of  the  troops  under  General 
Hood's  command  have  been  ordered  from  this  to  other 
States. 

Whib  wo  have  been  sorely  pressed  by  the  enemy  a  camp 
of  30,000  Federal  prisoners  has  been  kept  in  the  rear  of 
our  army,  which  has  added  greatly  to  our  embarrassments, 
and  has  it  seems  required  all  the  small  force  of  Confederate 
Reserves,  organized  by  Major  General  Cobb,  with  other  oc- 
cassional reinforcements  to  guard  them.  The  reserve  force 
organized  under  the  late  Conscript  Act  for  State  de- 
fence, has  been  thus  employed,  I  presume,  by  order  of  the 
President,  and  in  the  hour  of  her  peril  Georgia  has  not  had 
a  single  one  of  them  at  the  front  v^-ith  a  musket  in  his  hand 
to  aid  in  her  defence.  Had  the  militia  been  at  his  command 
for  such  service  as  he  might  have  ordered,  and  at  such 
place  as  he  might  designate,  the  presumption  is  that  the 
same  remark  might  have  been  Applicable  to  them,  as  other 
employment  could,  as  in  case  of  the  local  companies  under 
the  President's  command,  have  been  found  for  them  at  other 
places  while  the  enemy  were  besieging  Atlanta. 

Another  remarkable  fact  deserves  attention.  During  the 
whole  march  of  the  enemy  upon  Atlanta,  and  for  more 
than  a  month  after  it  was  closely  invested  and  shelled  by 
the  enemy,  it  never  seems  to  have  occurred  to  the  President 
to  make  requisition  upon  me  for  the  militia  of  Georgia   to 


aid  in  repelling  this  "formidable  invasion"  or  these  "de- 
structive raids,"  and  it  is  only  when  he  is  informed  that  I 
have  an  organization  of  gallant,  fearless  men  ready  to  de- 
fend the  State  against  usurpations  of  power  as  well  as  in- 
vasions by  the  enemy,  that  he  makes  req-uisition  upon  me 
for  this  force  and  all  others  I  can  organize.  I  must  express 
my  astonishment,  however,  that  you  and  the  President 
should  seem  to  be  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  this  force  was 
organized  by  roe  to  aid  in  repelling  the  army  of  invasion, 
that  it  was  placed  by  me  under  the  command  of  General 
Johnston  and  afterwards  of  General  Hood  for  the  defence 
of  Atlanta,  and  that  the  brave  men  of  which  it  is  composed 
under  the  command  of  the  General  appointed  by  the  Presi- 
dent for  the  defence  of  the  city,  have  taken  their  full  share 
in  the  dangers,  fatigues  and  sufferings  of  the  campaign  and 
have  acted  with  distinguished  valor  both  upon  the  battle- 
field and  for  over  forty  days  in  the  trenches  around  the  city 
of  Atlanta,  and  that  they  formed  the  rear  guard  vdien  At- 
lanta was  evacuated,  and  brought  off  with  them  safe  and  in 
good  order  the  reserve  artillery  of  the  army  which  was 
especially  entrusted  to  them  by  the  Oommander-in-chief 
For  all  this  no  word  of  thanks  or  praise  comes  from  the 
President  to  encourage  them.  They  wcr*'  iiiilitia.  Their 
Generals  and  other  officers  were  not  ;  jtpointed  by  the 
President  and  their  services  are  ignored  by  him. 

In  making  this  requisition  it  is  quite  clear  that  it  was  no 
part  of  the  President's  object  to  get  these  brave  men  into 
service.  They  were  there  at  the  time,  in  the  trenches, 
among  those  who  were  nearest  to  the  enemy,  wliere  they 
never  faltered  in  a  single  instance.  It  was  not  done  to  pro- 
duce harmony  in  the  command,  for  the  most  perfect  harmo- 
ny has  existed  betvv-een  me  and  both  the  Generals  who  have 
commanded  the  army  since  the  militia  were  called  out,  and 
it  is  well  known  that  I  placed  them  for  the  time  under  the 
absolute  control  of  the  Confederate  General  commanding.  It 
was  not  done  to  increase  the  number  in  service  at  the  front, 
for  the  President  is  too  familiar  with  the  obstacles  thrown 
in  my  way  by  Confederate  officers  when  I  have  attempted 
to  compel  men  to  go  to  the  trenches,  to  have  committed 
this  mistake.  It  was  certainly  not  done  to  cause  Georgia 
to  furnish  her  quota  of  troops  required  in  like  proportion 
of  other  States,  for  she  has  already  furnished  more  than  her 
just  quota,  and  to  every  call  responded  with  more  than 
were  required,  while  she  has  borne  the  rigors  of  conscrip- 
titn  executed  with  as  much  severity  as  in  any  other  State. 
I  hear  of  no  similar  requisition  having  been  made  upon  any 
other  State.  While  Georgia  has  more  than  filled  every 
requisition  made  upon  her  in  common  with  her  sister  States, 
and  has  borne  her  full   share   of  conscription,  and   has  for 


7 

months  had  her  reserved  militia  under  arms  from  sixteen  to 
firty-fiv3  years  of  age,  I  am  informed  that  even  the  Confed- 
erate reservea  of  other  States  from  seventeen  to  eighteen, 
and  from  forty-five  to  fifty,  have  till  very  lately  been  per- 
mitted by  the  President  to  spend  much  of  their  time  at 
liome  attending  to  their  ordinary  busi.iess.  Without  de- 
parting from  legitimate  inquiry  as  to  the  cause  of  this  re- 
quisition, I  might  ask  why  this!  distinction  is  made  against 
the  good  people  of  this  State,  and  why  her  Confederate  re- 
serves are  kept  constantly  in  service,  and  why  requisition  is 
made  for  her  whole  militia,  when  the  same  is  not  required 
of  any  other  State.  It  is  quite  clear  that  it  was  not  made 
either  to  compel  the  State  to  do  her  just  part  which  she 
lias  always  done,  or  to  put  more  of  her  sons  into  active  ser- 
vice for  her  defence,  for  every  man  called  for  by  the  re- 
quisition was  in  service  before  it  was  made.  The  President 
must  then  have  had  some  other  motive  in  making  the  re- 
quisition, and  I  think  it  not  uncharitable  under  all  the  cir- 
cumstances to  conclude  that  the  object  was  to  grasp  into 
his  own  hands  the  entire  control  of  the  whole  reserve 
militia  of  the  State,  which  would  enable  him  to  disband  its 
present  organization,  and  place  in  power  over  it  his  own 
partizans  and  favorites  as  Major  General,  Brigadier  Gen- 
erals, &c.,  &c.,  in  place  of  the  distinguished  officers  who 
were  appointed  to  command  in  conformity  to  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  country  and  the  laws  of  the  State,  and  who  havfr 
comnaanded  the  organization  with  so  m.uch  honor  to  them- 
selves, satisfaction  to  the  troops,  and  advantage  to  the  pub- 
lic service. 

Again  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  requisition  is  made 
upon  me  for  the  whole  militia  of  the  State — all  I  have  or- 
ganized and  all  I  can  organize — without  limitatiun  of  time 
or  place  of  service.  If  I  comply  with  it  the  militia  of  Geor- 
gia after  the  President  has  obtained  absolute  control  over 
them  may  be  taken  for  the  war  from  their  State,  as  tens  of 
thousands  of  their  brave  f?lIow  citizens  now  are,  while 
Georgia  and  their  homes  are  being  overrun.  If  I  am  asked 
to  trust  the  sound  judgment  and  good  faith  of  the  President 
tor  their  discliarge  and  return  to  their  home«  at  such  times 
as  their  services  are  not  indispensable  in  the  military  field, 
I  cannot  forget  the  faith  that  was  violated  last  fall  to  thous- 
ands of  Georgians  who  were  organized  under  a  requiiition 
from  the  President  to  be  'employed  in  the  local  defence  of 
importantcities,  and  in  repelling  in  emergencies  the  sudden  or 
/mw.<<<?«/ incursions  of  the  enemy,"  to  be  employed  'only 
when  and  so  long  as  they  might  be  needed,"  "with  the 
privilege  of  remaining  at  home  in  the  pursuit  of  their  ordina- 
ry avocations,  uiiless  when  called  for  a  temporary  exigency 
to  active  duty" 


s 

.  Thousands  of  these  men  organized  for  six  months  service, 
with  the  guarantees  above  mentioned,  were  called  out  early 
in  September  last,  and  were  kept  constantly  in  service  till 
the  expiration  of  their  term  in  March.  During  most  of  the 
time  they  were  guarding  no  important  city.  There  was  no 
sudden  emergency  or  transient  incursion  of  the  enemy,  no 
exigency  fur  the  last  four  months  of  the  time,  and  still  they 
were  kept  in  service  in  violation  of  the  faith  that  had  been 
pledged  to  them,  and  were  denied  the  privilege  of  going 
home  or  altending  to  the  '-pursuit  of  any  of  their  ordinary 
avocations,"  and  this  too  after  the  contract,  under  which 
they  had  entered  the  serviee,  had  been  pressed  upon  the  con- 
sideration of  the  President. 

It  is  impossible  for  the  agricultural  and  other  industrial 
pursuits  of  the  people  to  be  saved  from  ruin  if  the  whole 
reserve  militia  of  t lie  State,  from  IG  to  55,  are  put  perma- 
nently into  the  service  as  regular  troops.  Judging  from  the 
past,  I  ean  not  place  them  at  the  command  of  the  President 
for  the  war, without  great  apprehension  that  such  would  be 
their  fate.  Indeed,  not  even  the  President's  promise  to  the 
contrary  is  found  in  the  requisition  you  now  make.  I  am 
not,  therefore,  willing  to  expose  the  whole  reserve  militia 
of  Georgia  to  this  injustice,  and  our  agricultural  and  other 
interests  to  ruin,  when  no  other  State  is  required  to  make 
any  such  sacrifice  or  to  fill  any  such  requisition. 

The  Constitution  of  the  Confederate  States  authorizes 
the  States,  as  well  as  the  Confederacy,  to  keep  troops  in 
time  of  war  when  actually  invaded,  as  Georgia  now  is.  Her 
militia  have  been  organized  and  called  into  active  service 
tinder  her  own  laws  for  her  own  defence  ;  and  I  do  not  feel 
that  I  am  authorized  to  destroy  her  military  organization  at 
the  behest  of  the  President,  or  to  surrender  to  him  the  com- 
mand of  the  troops  organized  and  retained  by  her  by  virtue 
of  her  reserved  power  for  her  own  defence,  when  greatly 
needed  for  that  purpose,  and  which  are  her  only  remaining 
protection  against  the  encroachments  of  centralized  power. 
I  therefore  decline  to  comply  with  or  fill  this  extraordinary 
requisition.  While  I  refuse  to  gratify  the  President's. am- 
bition in  this  particular,  and  to  surrender  the  last  vestige  of 
the  sovereignty  of  the  State  by  placing  the  remainder  of  her 
n>ilitia  under  his  control  for  the  war,  I  beg  to  assure  yoa 
that  I  shall  not  hesitate  to  order  them  to  the  front,  and 
they  will  not  shun  the  thickest  of  the  fight  when  the  ene- 
my is  to  be  met  upon  the  soil  of  their  beloved  State.  Nor 
will  I  withhold  them  from  the  temporary  command  of  the 
Confederate  General  who  controls  the  army  during  great 
emergencies  when  he  needs  their  aid. 

I  shall,  however,  retain  the  power  to  withdraw  ,them  and 


to  furlough  or  disband  them  for  a  time,  to  look  to  their 
agricultural  and  other  vital  interests  vvhich  would  other- 
wise be  ruined  by  neglect,  whenever  I  see  they  can  be 
spared  from  the  military  field  without  endangering  the  ' 
safety  of  the  State.  Of  this  the  Governor  of  the  State,  ait 
Milledgevillc,  where  ho  is  near  the  field  of  operations  and 
can  have  frequent  interviews  with'  the  Commanding  Gen- 
eral, ought  to  be  as  coHipetcnt  to  judge  as  the  President  of 
the  Conlederary,  some  hundreds  of  miles  from  the  scene  of 
action,  charged  with  the  defence  of  Richmondand  all  the 
other  responsibilities  which  require  his  attention  and  di- 
vides his  time. 

Georgia  now  has  upon  the  soil  of  Virginia  nearly  50  regi- 
ments of  as  brave  troops  as  ever  met  the  enemy  in  deadly 
conflict,  not  one  of  which  ever  faltered  in  the  hour  of  trial. ' 
She  has  many  others  equally  gallant  aiding  in  the  defence  of 
other  States.  Indeed  the  blood  of  her  sons  has  crimsoned 
almost  every  battle-field  East  of  the  Mississippi,  from  -the 
first  Manassas  to  the  fall  of  Atlanta.  Her  gallant  sons  who 
still  survive  are  kept  by  the  President's  orders  far  from. her 
soil  while  their 'homes  are  being  overrun,  their  wives  and 
children  driven  out  before  the  enemy  and  reduced  to  beg- 
gary and  want,  and  their  almost  idolized  State  exposed  to 
temporary  subjugation  and  ruin.  Experience  having  shown 
that  the  Army  of  Tennessee,  with  the  '  aid  of  the  militia 
force  of  the  State,  is  not  able  to  withstand  and'  drive  back 
the  overwhelming  numbers  of  the  army  of  invasion,  as  the 
Executive  of-Georgia  in  behalf  other  brave  sons  now  absent 
in  other  States,  as  well  as  of  her  whole  people  at  home,  I 
demand  as  an  act  of  simple  justice  that  such  reinforcements 
be  sent  as  are  necessary  to  enable  the  army  upon  her  soil 
to  stop  the  ])rogres8  of  the  enemy  and  dislodge  and  drive 
liim  back.  In  view  ofthe  fact  that  the  permanent  posses'-^ 
sion  of  Georgia  by  the  enemy,  not  only  ruins  her  people, 
but  cuts  the  Confederacy,  East  of  the  Mississippi  in  two, 
and  strikes  a  death  blow  at  the  Confederate  Government  it- 
self, I  trust  this  most  reasonable  request  will  be  granted. 
If,-  however,  I  should  be  informed  that  the  President  will 
send  no  reinforcements  and  make  no  further  effort  to . 
strengthen  our  defences,  I  then  demand  that  he  permit  al! 
the  sons  of  Georgia  to  return  to  their  owrf  State,  and  with- 
in her  own  limits,  to  rally  around  her  glorious  flag — and  as 
it  flutters  in  the  breeze  in  defiance  ofthe  foe,  to  strike  for 
their  wives  and  their  children,  their  homes  and  their  altars 
^and  the  "green.graves"  of  their  kindred  and  sires  ;  and  I  as 
their  Executive  promise  that  whoever  else  may  be  yvith- 
drawn  from  her  defence,  they  will  drive  the  enemy  back  to 
her  borders,  or,  overwhelmed  and  stricken  down,  they  will 
nobly  perish  in  one  last  grand  ajid  glorious  effort  to  wrest 
the  standard   of  her  liberties  and  independence  from  the 


10 

grrap  of  the  oppressor  and  plant  it  immovably   upon  her 
Kacred  soil 

I  am  very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

JOSEPHS.  BROWN. 


CONFEDERATE  ST ATE>  OF  AMERICA,  ^ 

War  Dkpartme:^t,  ^ 

Ridunnnd^  October  Sth,   1S64.  ) 
HIS  EXCELLENCY  J.  E.  BROWN, 

GrOVERNOR  OF  GEORGIA, 

Milledgevilie,  Ga. 
.Sir  : 

Your  letter  of  the  12th  ult.  reached  me  some  days  since. 
Its  tenor  and  spirit  have  caused  painful  surprise.  It  re- 
quires forbearance  in  reply  to  maintain  the  respect  I  vi'ould 
pay  your  station,  and  observe  the  official  propriety  you  have 
so  transcended.  Ishallseekto  notice  only  such  portions 
as  appropriately  pertain  to  an    official  communication. 

The  Department,  on  the  30th  of  August,  under  the  di- 
rectioti  of  the  President,  made  a  requisition  upon  you  for 
'the  entire  Militia,  which  had  been  or  should  be  organized  by 
you,  that  they  might  be  employed  to  repel  the  "formida- 
ble invasion"  of  Georgia,  by  the  enemy,  and  to  secure  her 
from  "destructive  raids."  The  requisition  was  for  Militia 
in  a  state  of  organization.  The  apoointment  of  the  officers 
of  Militia  is  secured  by  the  Constitution  to  the  State  from 
which  they  are  drawn,  and  in  proposing  to  accept  organized 
Militia,  the  officers  legally  appointed  would  necessarily  ac- 
company their  commands. 

The  inducements  to  this  call  were  several.  You  had  in 
official  communication,  stated  that  you  had  ten  thousand 
Jlilitia  organized,  and  you  were  known  to  be  apparently 
busy  in  organizing  others.  Of  these,  a  portion,  it  was  known, 
were  with  the  army  of  Tennessee  in  some  auxiliary  rela- 
tion, and  had  rendered  valuable  service,  with  that  army  ia 
the  defence  of  Georgia.  Only  a  limited  number,  however, 
ndt  believed  to  constitute  half  of  the  number  Reported  by 
3''0u  to  be  actually  organized,  were  so  employed,  and  were, 
as  has  been  ansouiijced  by  you,  held  there  only  at  your 
pleasure,  and  for  such  time  and  during  such  opei'ations  as 
you  might  approve.  The  services  of  these,  gallant  defen- 
ders of  their  State,  were  so  appreciated,  as  to  render  it  de- 
sirable that  the  full  number  organized,  or  to  be  organized, 
should  be  secured,  to  repel  the  formidable  invasion  threaten-' 
jng  to  overrun  the  State  ;  and  both  to  impart  greater  unity 
and  efficiency  to  the  command  of  them  htid  enable  the  Gen- 
eral Commanding,  to  rely  on  the  period  and  tenure  of  their 
services,  it  was  necessary  they  should  be  in   Confederate 


ii 

service,  and  subject,  not  to  your  judgment  or  disposal,  but 
to  the  control  of  the  constitutional  Commander-in-Chief.  It 
is  easy  to  see  how  uncertainty  as  to  their  control  or  reten- 
tion, must  impair  reliance  by  the  Commander  on  these 
troops,  and  embarrass  all  calculations  for  their  employment 
and  efficiency  in  combined  operations.  An  additional,  ground 
of  the  call  was,  that  some  of  these  troops  had  been  detailed 
for  objects  not  admitfed  by  the  Enrolling  Ofiicers  in  the 
State  to  be  authorized  by  Confederate  law,  and  others  were 
claimed  as  primarily  liable,  or  previously  subjected  to  Con- 
iederate  service.  This  had  engendered  controversy,  and 
endangered  collision  between  the  local,  Confederate  and 
State  authorities,  which  it  was  most  desirable  to  anticipate 
and  preclude. 

Besides,  these  Militia,  as  far  as  they  were  serving  with 
the  Confederate  army,  had  to  be  subsisted  from  the  commis- 
sary stores  of  the  Confederacy,  and  might  equitably  expect 
pay  from  its  Treasury;  but  if  held  as  State  troops  only, 
both  subsistence  and  pay  constituted  a  charge  on  the  State 
alone. 

Serious  embarrassment's  had  already  arisen  on  these  very 
points,  and  departure  had  been  necessary  from  the  regular 
obligations  of  the  Confederate  Government,  which  were 
not  just  to  either  that  Government  or  its  disbursing  officers. 
The  powers  of  the  Confederate  Government  to  provide  for 
the  common  defence,  are  exercised  according  to  laws 
through  agencies  adopted  by  Congress.  None  of  these  laws 
contemplated  the  fulfilment  of  this  duty,  by  troops  organi- 
zed and  held  by  the  State  in  its  own  service,  and  under  of- 
ficers ijesponsible  only  to  it. 

The  Constitution  of  the  Confederate  States  d\)es  not  con- 
fer on  the  State,  the  power  to  kee[)  troops  in  time  of  war. 
The  States  are  prohibited  from  "keeping  troops  or  ships  of 
war  in  time  of  peace,  entering  into  any  agre«;ment  or  com- 
pact with  anotlier  State,  or  with  a  foreign  power,  or  en- 
gaging in  war,  unless  actually  invaded,  or  in  such  iminent 
danger  as  will  not  admit  of  delay."  The  power  of  keeping 
troops  in  time  of  war,  is  thus  reserved,  and  naturally  in- 
cludes whatever  is  necessary  to  accomplish  tlia  object  of 
the  reservation,  and  is  limited  in  its  scope  and  operation 
only  by  the  Constitution  of  the  Confederate  States,  "and 
the  laws  which  shall  be  made  in  pursuance  thereof."  It 
does  not  imply  any  vv'ithdrawal  from  the  Confederate  Gov- 
ernment, of  those  instrumentalities  and  agencies,  that  the 
Constitution  has  confided  to  the  Government  of  the  Confed- 
eracy for  the  fulfilment  of  the  obligations  it  has  imposed  up- 
on it. 

The  powers  to  declare  war,  to  raise  armies,  to  maintain  a 
naVy,  to  make  rules  for  the  government  of  the  land  and 
caval  forces,  to  make .  rules  concerning   captures  on   land 


12 

and  water,  to  protect  each  ot  the  States  against  invasion, 
which  are  deposited  with  Congress,  manifest  the  purpose 
of  the  States  in  forming  their  Constitution,  to  charge  the 
Confederate  Government  with  the  burden  of  providing  for 
the  common  defence.  The  clause  in  the  Constitution  rela- 
tive to  the  militia,  was  framed  In  harmony  with  the  same 
purpose.  The  Constitution  charges  Congress  with  the  or- 
ganization, equipment  and  discipline  of  the  Militia,  and 
designates  the  President  as  Commander-in-Chief  of  those 
thatma}'^  be  called  into  service. 

It  was  evidently  the  design  of  the  Constitution,  and  of 
the  laws  of  Congress,  in  pursuance  thereof,  which  are  thie 
supreme  law  of  the  land,  that  the  President  should  have  the 
discretion  and  the  power  of  calling  this  militia  into  service, 
and  having  personally  or  through  Confederate  Commandei'S, 
the  disposition  and  command  of  them.  In  a  crisis  of  great 
peril,  and  in  a  case  of  plain  invasion  of  your  State,  he  has 
exercised  this  power,  and  made  the  Constitutional  require- 
ment on  you.     You  have  met  it  with  a  distinct  refusal. 

This  is  the  first  instance  in  the  annals  of  the  Confederacy 
of  the  suggestion  of  a  doubt  on  the  right  of  the  President 
to  make  such  call,  and  the  obligation  of  compliance  by  the 
State  Executive. 

During  the  last  war  with  Great  Britian,  a  question  of  the 
kind  was  made  by  the  Governors  of  Massachusetts  and  Con- 
necticut with  the  President  of  the  then  United  States. 
They  claimed  to  decide  wheth(?rthe  exigencies  existed  which 
authorized  the  President  to  make  a  requisition  for  Militia  to 
repel  invasions,  and  denied  his  power  to  associate  tbem 
with  other  troops  under  a  Federal  officer.  They  affected 
to  believe  {he  exercise  of  such  a  power,  imperiled  State 
Rights,  and  promoted  personal  ambition.  The  judicial  tri- 
bunals determined  adversely  to  the  pretensions  of  these 
Governors,  and  the  country  did  not  fail  to  discover,  lurking 
under  their  specious  pretences,  hostility,  scarcely  less  than 
criminal  to  the  constituted  authorities  of  the  Union,  an  un- 
liceensed  ambition  in  themselves,  and  a  dangei'ous  purpose, 
in  the  midst  of  war,  to  cripple  patriotic  efibrts  for  the  pub- 
lic defence.  The  impression  was  not  wanting,  either  the« 
or  since,  that  they  were  even  in  cominunication  with  the 
enemy,  or  at  least  proposed  to  give  them  encouragement 
and  moral  suppoi't. 

Without  imputing  to  you  such  disigns,  I  cannot  repress 
apprehensions  of  similar  effects  from  your  analogous  course 
under  the  present  more  trying  circumstances,  as  indeed  it 
must  be  admitted  in  all  particuh^rs  ;  and  especially  on  the 
main  point  of  the  existence  of  invasion,  there  was  more 
plausibility  in  their  case  than  in  yours,  on  the  grounds  as- 
signed for  refusal. 

On.analyzing  your  Excellency's  letter,  it  is  apparent  that 


13 

tke  prominent  and  influencing  reasons  of  your  action, 
spring  from  a  spirit  of  opposition  to  the  Government  of  the 
Confederate  States,  and  animosity  to  the  Chief  Magistrate 
whom  the  people  of  the  Confederacy  have  hoaored  by  their 
•hoice  and  confidence.  Your  reasons  may  be  reduced  to  the 
following  : 

1.  That  the  campaign  in  Georgia,  not  having  been  con- 
trolled by  the  President,  according  to  your  conceptions,  or 
with  the.  means  you  advised,  you  will  not  permit  any  force 
you  can  control  to  be  subject  to  his  disposition;  but  will 
yourself  retain  their  control,  and  mete  out  your  assistance 
according  to  your  views  of  policy  and  State  interest. 

2.  That  you  suspect  the  President  of  a  design,  after  the 
reception  of  these  militia,  to  disorganize  or  disband  them 
that  he  may  displace  the  officers  commanding  them  and 
substitute  his  partisans  and  favorites. 

3.'  You  apprehend  that  these  militia,  under  the  Presi- 
dent's control,  will  be  employed  for  such  length  of  time, 
and  under  such  condition  as  will  be  deleterous  to  the  in- 
terests of  themselves  and  the  State,  and  esteem  yourself  a 
better  judge  on  these  points,  especially  as  to  when  aud 
where  they  shall  be  employed,  furloughed  or  discharg- 
ed, &c. 

•A.  That  these  troops,  besides  being  necessary  as  a  de- 
fence against  invasion,  are  also  necessary  to  defend  the  State 
against  usurpations  of  power,  and  as  "a  protection  against 
the  encroachment  of  centralized  power,"  and  that  the 
knowledge  of  the  President  of  their  ability  and  disposition 
to  do  this  was  the  motive  for  the  cali  on  you. 

In  reference  to  the  first,  it  might  not  be  safe  as  it  would 
not  be  expedient  now  to  expose  the  circumstances  of  the 
present  campaign,  the  counsels  that  guided,  or  the  resour- 
ces that  have  been  or  could  be  commanded  for  its  opera- 
tions. ■  ^ 

None  should  have  known  more  certainly  than  your  Ex- 
cellency the  zeal  and  energy  with  which  the  President  and 
this  Department,  under  his  auspices,  have  striven  to  com- 
mand resources  and  means  for  the  defence  of  Georgia  and 
the  overthrow  of  the  invader,  nor  the  impediments  and  dif- 
ficulties often  unfortunately  resulting  from  the  obstruction 
of  the  local  authorities  which  they  had  to  encounter.  Aware 
early  of  the  danger  that  menaced  the  State,  besides  con- 
centrating troops  from  other  Departments  for  its  defence, 
this  Department  strained  all  the  powers  vested  in  it  for  re- 
cruiting the  army  wnthin  the  limits  of  Georgia,  and  accumu- 
lating supplies  for  its  support.  The  legislation  of  the  Con- 
gress that  ended  its  sessien  in  February  last  had  been  com- 
prehensive and  vigorous. 

Your  Excellency  can  not  have  forgotten  how  that  legis- 
lation  was  denounced  and  the  efforts  of  the  department  im- 


1* 

paired  by  the  countervailing  action  of  the  Executive  ani 
local  authorities  of  your  State.  To  the  department  it  can 
not  be  imputed  88  a  fault  that  Georgia  was  invaded  by 
'•overwhelming  numbers."  The  ten  thousand  militia  you 
boast  to  have  organized,  without  adding  to  the  e»unt,  those 
you  are  proceeding  to  organize,  if  incorporated  with  the 
veteran  regiments  prior  to  the  let  of  of  May,  would  have 
been  a  n  invaluable  acquisition  to  the  Army  of  Tennessee, 
and  n  ot  improbably  have  hurled  back  the  invader  from  the 
thres  hold  of  your  State.  That  they,  or  a  large  propertioa 
of  them  at  least,  were  not  ready  for  that  service  and  other 
auxiliary  means  to  its  operations  were  not  afforded,  I  am 
bound  to  think  was  due  to  the  obstacles  and  embarrassments 
interposed  by  your  Excellency  and  the  local  authorities  with 
your  countenance,  to  the  enforcement  of  the  acts  of  Con- 
gress for  the  recruitment  and  maintenance  of  the  armies. 
Your  Excellency  may  not  have  foreseen  and  realized  the 
extent  and  import  of  the  approaching  invasion,  but  to 
whom,  then,  with  most  safety  and  wisdom  (apart  even 
from  constitutional  obligation,)  can  the  disposition  and  com- 
mand of  the  troops  in  question  be  committed  ? 

In  your  second  reason  it  is  difficult  to  find  anything  but 
the  ascription  to  the  President  of  an  unworthy  design — a 
design  that  can  not  be  accomplished  without  disappointing 
the  objects  which  I  have  explained  as  the  cause  of  the  re- 
quisition. The  disbanding  of  the  militia  organizations,  af- 
ter their  call  into  service,  would  result  in  the  discharge  of 
such  of  the  men  as  are  not  liable  to  service  under  the  act  of 
Congress  of  February  last,  and  those  who  are  liable,  in  such 
an  event,  would  be  placed  in  those  veteran  regiments  raised 
for  Confederate  service  in  the  State  of  Georgia  prior  to 
April;  186i,  whose  diminished  numbers  attest  the  fidelity, 
valor  and  suffering  with  which  they  have  performed  their 
duty.  Whether,  therefore,  the  militia  be  retained  in  their 
militia  organization,  as  is  comtemplated;  or  be  disbanded 
as  you  apprehen<l  may  be  done,  in  neither  event  can  new 
organizations  be  made  or  new  officers  appointed.  Your 
suspicions  as  to  the  motives  and  designs  of  the  President 
are  simply  chimerical.  - 

In  your  third  reason,  your  Excellency  has  apparently  for- 
gotton  the  true  inquiry,  where,  constitutionally  and  legally, 
in  all  such  matters,  the  discretion  of  decision  is  lodged,  and 
further,  that  a  provision  adequate,  in  the  view  of  Congress, 
against  abuse  has  been  provided  in  the  limitation  of  time 
for  which  the  Militia  may  be  called  out,  to  six  months.  In 
illustrating  the  danger  of  undue  detention  in  Confederate 
service,  your  Excellency  refers  to  the  course  pursued  to- 
wards the  troops  for  local  service.,  enlisted  by  you  last  Fall, 
under  a  call  from  the  Department.  During  the  last  winter, 
your  Excellency  addressed  to  this  Department  ajiacrimoni- 


15 

0U8  letter  on  this  subject,  which  was  replied  to  in  a  spirit 
of  forbearance,  and  with  a  careful  abstinence  from  the  use 
of  recriminating  language. 

Justice  to  myself  demands  that  I  should  place  upon  the 
records  of  the  department  the  facts  to  which  you  have 
again  alluded  in  the  same  language  of  acrimonious  re- 
proach. It  had  been  designed  to  raise  troops  for  special  de- 
fence and  local  service  as  the  general  rule  throughout  the 
State,  to  constitute  a  part  of  the  Provisional  Army,  and  to 
be  subject  to  the  call  ol  the  President  when  needed.  You 
asked  to  supervise  and  control  the  whole  matter,  and  unfor- 
tunately the  privilege  was  yielded. 

You  abused  it  tolorm  non-descript  organizations,  not  con- 
forming to  the  regulations  of  the  Provisional  Army,  scant 
in  men,  and  abounding  in  officers,  with  every  variety  of 
obligation  for  local  service,  generally  of  the  most  restrict- 
ed character,  and  for  the  brief  period  of  only  six  months. 
Thus  it  was  that  you  were  enabled  to  indulge  the  vain 
boast  of  raising  some  sixteen  thousand  men  for  the  defence 
of  the  State,  while  in  fact,  scarce  a  decent  division  of  four 
thousand  men  could  be  mustered  for  the  field,  and  those' on- 
ly for  six  months  service.  From  the  time  they  \ver<i 
passed  to  Confederate  service  there  was  pressing  necessity 
for  their  presence  in  the  field,  for  Georgia  was  not  only 
menaced,  but  actually  invaded,  and  the  number  was  too 
limited  to  allow  substitution  or  furlough.  Apart  from  this, 
you  persistently  claimed  that  they  should  be  held  and  re- 
garded as  Militia.  In  that  view,  they  could  not,  if  dismiss- 
ed, be  recalled  on  emergency  as  local  troops,  and  this  natu- 
rally induced  their  detention  for  the  full  period  of  their 
limited  terra  of  service. 

To  your  last  reason  I  refrain  from  replying,  as  its  cliar- 
acter  would  justify.  I  cannot  think  the  significancy  of  the 
language  quoted  has  been  duly  appreciated  by  your  Excel- 
lency. I  prefer  to  consider  them  as  inconsiderate  utter- 
ances rather  than  the  foreshadowing  of  a  guilty  purpose  to 
array  your  State  in  armed  antagonism  against  the  Confed- 
eracy, and  so  to  betray,  the  cause  of  herself  and  sister 
States. 

Such  purpose  I  tnow  would  be  scorned  andj-ebuked  by 
her  heroic  soldiery  and  loyal  people,  and  it  will  not,  while 
it  be  possible  to  avoid  it,  be  ascribed  by  me  to  one  whose 
official  station  makes  him  their  recognized  organ.  I  must, 
however,  gravely  regret  that  the  spirit  of  your  ExcelleLcy's 
past  action  and  public  expressions,  has  caused  grievous  mis- 
conceptions in  relation  to  the  feelings  and  purposes  of  your- 
self, and  perhaps  «f  others  of  influence  in  your  State,  in  the 
convictions  of  our  enemies  to  their  encouragement,  and  the 
mortification  of  many  patriotic  citizens  of  the  Confederacy. 

Our  enemies  appear  to  hare  conceived  you  were  even 


16 

prepared  to  entertain  orertures  of  separate  accommodation, 
and  that  your  State,  so  justly  proud  of  its  faitli,  valor  and 
renown,  could  be  seduced  or  betrayed  to  treachery  and  de- 
sertion. So  painful  a  manifestation  of  the  hopes  inspired 
by  your  indulgence  of  resentments  and  suspicions  against 
the  Confederate  Administration  will,  it  is  hoped,  awaken 
to  consideration  and  a  change  of  future  action.  To  the  De- 
l»artment  it  would  be  lar  more  grateful  instead  of  being  en- 
gaged in  reminding  of  constitutional  obligations  and  repell- 
ing unjust  imputations,  to  be  co-operating  with  your  Ex- 
•ellency  in  a  spirit  of  unity  and  confidence,  in  the  defence 
©f  your  State  and  the  overthrow  of  the  invader. 

Very  Respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 
JAMES  A.  SEDDON, 

Secjretary  of  War. 


EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT,  J 

MlLLEDOEVILLE,    GeO.,  V 

.(•  Kovember  l-ith,  1SG4.  ) 

HON.' J  AMES  A.  SEDDON, 

Secretary  oe  War. 

Sir:  Official  engagements  have  prevented  earlier  atten- 
tion to  your  letter  of  Sth  ult.,  which  reached  me  on  the 
20th. 

You  are  pleased  to  characterize  a  portion  of  my  letter  as 
acrimonious,  and  claim  that  I  have  transcended  the  bounds 
of  official  propriety,  and  seem  to  desire  me  to  understand 
that  you  labor  under  difficulties  in  restraining  yourself 
within  the  bounds  of  forbearance  in  your  reply.  As  the 
acrimony  of  my  letter  consisted  in  a  simple  narrative  of 
truths,  communicated  in  a  plain,  straight-forward  manner, 
calling  things  by  their  right  name,  I  feel  that  I  am  due  you 
no  apology.  Of  course  no  personal  disrespect  was  intend- 
ed. I  am  dealing,  not  with  individuals,  but  w^ith  great 
principles,  and  with  the  conduct  of  an  administration  of  the 
Government,  of  which  your  Department  is  but  one  branch. 
And  if  you  .will  not  consider  the  remark  acrimonious,  I  will 
add  that  the  people  of  my  State,  not  being  dependent  and 
never  intending  to  be,  upon  that  Government  for  the  priv- 
ilege of  exercising  their  natural  and  Constitutional  rights, 
nor  the  Executive  of  the  State  for  his  official  existence,  I 
ghall  on  all  occasions  feel  at  liberty  to  exercise  perfect  in- 
dependence in  the  discharge  of  my  official  obligations,  with 
no  other  restraints  than  those  thrown  around  me  by  a  sense 
of  duty,  and  the  Constitution  of  my  country,  and  the  laws 
of  my  State. 

Y#u  remark  that  this  is  the  first  instance  in  the  annals  of 


17 

the  Confederacy  of  the  suggestion  of  a  doubt  on  the  right 
oi  the  President  to  make  such  a  call,  and  the  obligation  of 
compliance  by  the  State  Executive.  Doubtless  vou  are 
right,  as  this  is  unquestionibly  the  first  instance  in'the  an- 
nals of  either  the  old  or  new  Confederacy  of  mch  a  call, 
made  by  the  President.  It  presents  the  isolated  case  of  aa 
attempt,  by  the  President,  to  single  out  a  particular  State, 
and,  by  grasping  into  his  own  hands  its  whole  military 
strength,  to  divest  it  of  its  last  vestige  of  power  to  maintain 
it^  sovereignty  ;  not  only  denying  to  it  the  right  plainly  re- 
served in  the  Constitution,  to  keep  troops  in  time  of  war  when 
actually  icvaded,  but  claiming  the  power  to  deprive  it  of 
.its  whole  militia  and  leave  it  not  a  man  to  aid  in  the  execu- 
tion of  its  laws,  or  to  suppress  servile  insurrection  in  it» 
midst. 

The  President  demands  that  Georgia  shall  turn  over  to 
hitn,  and  relinquish  her  command  and  control  over  every 
militiaman  now  organized  by  her  Executive,  and  all  he  7nay 
he  able  to  organize.  The  militia  is  composed  mainly  of  a 
class  of  men  and  boys,  between  ages  not  subject  by  the  laws 
of  Congress  or  of  the  State  to  serve  in  the  Confederate  ar- 
mies. The  President  calls  for  all  the  State  has  of  the  above 
description  As  no  5mc//.  requisition  was  ever  before  made 
upon  any  State,  and  it  probably  never  entered  into  the 
mind  of  an}'^  Statesman  that  sucli  a  call  ever  would  be  made, 
it  never  became  necessary  to  question  the  right  to  make  it. 

You  cite  the  case  of  the  refusal  of  the  Governors  of  Mas- 
sachusetts and  Connecticut,  during  the  last  war  with  Great 
Britain^  to  furnish  troops  for  the  cfmqjon  defense  upon  the 
requisition  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  say  it 
must  be  admitted  that  my  course  is  analogous  to  theirs  "in 
all  particulars,"  and  that  there  was  more,  plausibility  iia 
their  case  than  in  mine,  on  the  grounds  assigned  for  refusal. 
Let  us  test  th4s  statement  by  the  st;indard  of  truth.  You 
say  the  cjses  are  analogous  '•  in  all  particulars."  I  deny 
ihat  they  are  analogous  in  any  particular.  To  show  the 
character  of  that  call,  I  quote  the  language  of  President 
Monroe : 

"It  will  be  recollected  that  ivhen  a  call  was  made  on  the 
Militia  of  that  State,  lor  service  in  the  late  war,  under  art 
nrrangcmcnl  which  Wd^  alike  applicable  to  the  Militia  of  all  the 
States,  and  in  conformity  with  the  acts  of  Congress,  the  Ex- 
ecutive of  Massachusetts  refused  t*  comply  with  the  call.'* 
That,  then,  was  a  call  under  an  arrangement  a^/^-e  applicable 
to  r/ze  Militia  of  all  tJie  States.  This  is  not  a  call  made  under 
an  arrangement  aWcc  applicable  to  the  Militia  of  a//  the  Stntesy 
or  indeed  of  any  of  the  other  States.  This  is  a  call  for  all 
the  Militia  which  the  Executive  of  Georgia  has  organized 
of  matj  be. able  to  organize.  No  mch  call  was  made  by  the 
Presid(?i!L  upon  the  Militia  of  any  other  Strite.     The  analogy 


18 

fails  then  at  the  very  first  step.  But  let  us  trace  it  a  little 
further.  That  was  a  call  for  men  within  the  age  required 
to  do  military  service  in  the  armies  of  the  United  States. 
This  is  a  call  for  men  who  are  exempt  by  act  of  Congress 
from  all  «ervice  in  the  Confederate  armies,  and  of  whom  it 
is  expressly  declared,  by  an  act  of  the  Legiglat'jre  of  Georr 
gia,  that  they  shall  not  be  "liable  to  any  draft  or  other  com- 
pulsory process  to  Jill  any  rajuisition  for  troops  upon  the 
Governor  of  the  State  by  the  President  of  the  Confederate 
States."  Tliat  was  a  call  which  the  President  could  leg^- 
ly  make,  and  which  the  Governors  had  lawful  authority  to 
fill.  This  is  a  call  which  the  President  had  no  lawful  right 
to  make,  and  which  the  Governor  could  not  fill  without  vi- 
olating a  positive  statute  of  his  State.  That  was  a  call  for 
active  Militia  who  were  not  in  service,  but  were  at  home 
attending  to  their  ordinary  pursuits.  This  is  a  call  for  re- 
serve Militia,  who,  at  the  time  it  was  made  and  were,  for 
months  past,  bad  been  in  actual  service — most  of  the  time 
in  the  trendies  around  Atlanta,  under  the  constant  fire  of 
the  guns  of  the  enemy.  In  that  case,  the  Governors  of 
Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  refused  to  place  the  Militia 
of  those  States  under  the  command  of  a  Federal  General. 
In  this  case,  the  Militia  had  already  been  placed  by  the  Gov- 
ernor of  Georgia  under  the  command  of  a  Confederate  Gen- 
eral, where  they  were  on  the  very  day  the  call  was  made, 
and  had  been  for  some  months  previous. 

In  that  case,  the  Governors  of  those  States  adjudged  that 
Tio  em  3rgency  existed  to  justify  the  call  for  the  Militia,  after 
the  President  had  decided  that  it  did,  and  they  refused  to 
order  them  into  the  field.  In  this  case,  the  Goveraor  of 
Georgia  admitted  that  the  emergency  did  exist,  and  had  or- 
dered them  in  months  before  the  President  saw  the  emer- 
gency, and  called  for  the  services  of  the  Militia.  In  that 
case,  the  President  was  making  an  honest  eiiort  to  get  the 
Militia  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  into'service,  to  aid 
in  repelling  any  assaults  that  might  be  made  by  the  enemy. 
In  this  case,  the  President,  after  the  reserve  Militia  of  Geor- 
gia had  been  called  out  by  the  Governor  and  put  into  active 
service,  was  using  his  official  influence,  as  shown  by  Gener- 
al Orders  Nos.  03  and  67,  issued  by  his  Adjutant  General, 
to  get  the  Militia  of  Georgia  out  of  service,  where  they 
were  confronting  the  enemy  and  sbedding  their  blood  in  the 
defence  of  their  State. 

When  they  were  in  the  trenches  under  the  fire  of  the  en- 
emy, the  President  held  out.  as  a  reward  for  their  delin- 
quency in  case  of  their  desartion  from  the  State  Militia  and 
^ireturn  home,  a  guaranty  of  the  privilege  of  remaining  there 
in  local  companies,  to  be  called  out  only  in  emergencies,  to 
defend  their  own  counties  and  vicinage. 

I  append  to  this  letter  paragraph  1,  General  Orders  No. 


19 

«3,  and  a  paragraph  of  General  Order  No.  67,  by  reference 
to  which  it  will  be  seen  that  all  detailtd  men  were  required, 
and  all  exempts  from  Confederate  service  invited  to  enroll 
themselves  in  local  cojnpanies  at  home,  with  promise  that 
they  should  be  called  out  only  in  emergencies,  to  defend 
the  Counties  of  their  reyidence  and  contiguous  counties. 

The  present  Militia  of  Georgia  are  composed  of  exempts 
from  Confederate  service  and  such  detailed  men  as  are  not  in 
the  military  service  of  tiie  Confederate  States.  The  Militia 
of  the  State,  then  at  the  front,  was  composed  of  men  of  these 
classes  only.  The  order  was  addressed  to  all  men  of  both 
classes.  The  President  denied  the  right  of  the  Governor  of 
Georgia  to  call  out  the  detailed  men  for  service,  and  would, 
if  consistent,  stand  ready  to  protect  them  in  case  they 
would  desert  the  Militia  service  and  return  home  and  join 
his  local  coujpanies.  Thus  the  strong  temptation  of  re- 
maining at  hoiiie  was  hold  out  by  the  Presideat  to  these 
men,  if  they  would  ingloriously  abandon  Atlanta,  when  be- 
leaguied  by  the  enemy,  and,  after  deser'ion  frohi  the  Mili- 
tia, enlist  in  Confederate  service,  which  would  give  the 
President  the  entire  command  of  them  and  enable  him  to 
destroy  the  Militia  organization  of  the  State.  Fortunately 
the  temptation  succeeded  in  seducing  but  a  small  portion 
of  the  Militia  to  desert  and  return  home.  They  were  gen- 
erally true  men  and  stood  gallantly  by  their  colors,  knowing 
that  their  couatry  needed  their  services  at  the  front  and  not 
in  local  companies  in  the  rear.  General  Order  No.  63  was 
issued  on  the  6th  of  August  and  was  followed  by  General 
Order  No.  67  on  the  16th  of  the  same  month.  The  President 
then  waited  tv^'o  weeks,  and  as  the  Militia  still  remained  in 
the  trenches  around  Atlanta,  he  found  it  necessary  to  change 
his  policy  and  resort  to  a  requisition  upon  me  for  the  whole 
Militia  of  the  State,  as  the  only  means  left  of  accomplishing 
his  objects. 

President  Madison  offered  no  such  inducements  to,  and 
made  no  such  requisition  upon  the  Militia  of  Massachusetts 
and  Connecticut.  So  much  for  the  analogy  of  the  two  ca- 
ses. But  you  are  as  unfortunate  in  your  facts  as  in  your 
analogy,  as  will  be  further  seen  by  your  statement  that  the 
"judicial  tribunals  determined  adversely  to  the  pretensions 
of  the  Governors."  By  reference  to  the  Sth.volume  Massa- 
cjiusetts  Reports,  Supplement,  page  549,  you  will  find  that 
the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  that  State  had  the  case 
before  them,  and  determined  every  point  made  by  Govern- 
or Strong  in  his  flivor,  and  "  adversely  to  the  pretensions" 
of  the  President. 

But  you  remind  me,  that  the  10,000  Militia,  which  you 
say  I  had  organized,  with  those  I  was  proceeding  to  organ- 
ize, if  incorporated  with  the  veteran  regiments,  prior  to  the 
first  of  May,  would Jiave   been  an  invaluable  acquisition  to 


20 

the  army  of  Tennessee  and  not  improbably  have  hurled 
back  the  invaders  from  the  threshold  of  my  State.  If  this 
were  true  and  the  movements  and  strength  oftheeiemy 
were  so  much  better  understood  by  the  President  than  by 
myself,  as  you  would  have  the  country  believe,  why  was  it 
that  the  President  made  no  call  for  the  Militia  in  May,  when 
the  armies  were  above  Daltont  Why  was  the  call  delay- 
ed till  the  30th  of  August,  two  days  before  Atlanta  fell, 
and  then  mailed  to  me  too  late  to  reach  Milledgeville  till 
after  the  tall  ?  If  the  control  of  the  whole  Militia  of  the 
State,  by  the  President,  was  so  essential  to  the  defence  of 
Atlanta,  how  do  you  account  for  the  neglect  of  the  Presi- 
dent to  call  for  them  till  after  the  campaign  had  ended,  in 
the  surrender  of  the  city  to  the  enemy? 

Seeing  that  the  President  did  not  seem  to  appreciate  the 
emergency,  and  the  danger  to  Atlanta,  upon  consultation 
with  that  fiir-seeing  General  and  distinguished  soldier,  Jo- 
seph E.  Johnston,  I  had  ordered  the  Militia  to  report  to  him 
and  aid  the  gallant  army  of  Tennessee.  I  first  ordered  out 
the  civil  and  military  officers  of  the  State,  when  the  armies 
were  near  Dalton,  and  afterwards  called  out  the  reserved 
Militia,  including  all  between  sixteen  and  fifty-five  years  of 
age,  when  they  were  at  Kennesavv.  During  all  this  time, 
and  for  nearly  tvv^o  months  afterward,  no  call  was  made  by 
the  President  for  their  services.  If  the  statements  you  now 
make  are  correct,  surely  such  neglect  by  the  President  iii 
so  critical  an  emergency,  involves  little  less  than  criminal- 
ity. 

Again,  you  state,  #s  one  of  the  inducements  to  the  call, 
that  I  had  stated  in  official  correspondence,  that  I  had  ten 
thousand  Militia  organized — that  a  portion  of  these  were 
known  to  be  with  the  army  of  Tennessee  in  some  auxiliary 
relation — only  a  limited  number,  however,  not  belived  t© 
constitute  half  the  number  reported  by  me  to.  be  actually 
organized. 

You  are  again  incoirect  in  your  facts,  and  unfortunately 
ignorant  of  the  strength  of  the  force  that  was  under  your 
command. 

In  the  official  correspondence  to  whiclfc  I  suppose  you  al- 
lude, I  did  not  state  that  I  had  organized  tc7i  thousa?id Militia. 
The  language  used,  was,  "  nearly  ten  thousand  armed  men." 
At  that  time,  the  two  regiments  of  the  State  Line,  who  are 
regular  troops  for  the  war,  numbered  nearly  fifteen  hun- 
dred. They  too,  were  placed  under  the  Confederate  Com- 
mander, and  nearly  five  hundred  of  them,  while  under  his 
command,  have  been  disabled  or  lost  upon  the  battle-field. 
But  if  I  had  made  the  statement  as  you  incorrectly  charge, 
it  would  have  been  true. 

The  tri-monthly  report,  forwarded  by  Maj.  Gen.  G.  W. 
Smith,  who  commands  the  Division  of  Sf^te  Militia, tt  Gen- 


21 

eral  Hood,  dated  10th  September,  1804,  but  a  few  days  af- 
ter the  fall  of  Atlanta,  showed  upon  the  muster  rolls  of  his 
Division,  nine  thousand  one  hundred  and  seventy  men.  This 
report  did  not  include  the  regiment  of  Fulton  County  Mili- 
tia, which  had  been  detached  for  local  service  in  the  city, 
under  the  command  of  Brig.  Gen.  M.  J.  Wright,  of  the  Con- 
federate army  ;  nor  the  regiment  of  Troup  County  Militia, 
which  was  stationed,  by  the  Commanding  General,  at  West 
Point,  under  Brig.  Gen.  Tyler,  of  the  Confederate  army. 
Nor  did  it  include  the  two  regiments  of  the  State  Line, 
which  had  been  ordered  into  other  Divisions  of  the  Army  of 
Tennessee.  Nor  did  it  include  the  Battalion  of  Cadets,  of 
the  Georgia  Military  Institute,  who  did  gallant  service  hi  the 
trenches  of  Atlanta.  Nor  did  it  embrace  the  names  of  the 
gallant  dead  of  this  Division,  who  never  turned  their  backs 
to  the  enemy,  but  fell  upon  the  battle-ficLd  or  died  in  the 
hospital  These  had  rendered  the  last  service  in  the  power 
of  the  patriot  to  their  country  before  the  President  saw  the 
necessity  which  induced  him  to  call  for  them,  and  as  they 
slept  at  the  date  of  his  call  in  the  soldier's  grave,  they  were 
untortuately  unable  to  respond.  But  if  you  say  that  the 
whole  ten  thousand  were  not  in  the  trenches  with  muskets 
in  their  hands,  I  reply,  that  while  many  were  sick  and  some 
absent  without  leave,  a  larger  proportion  of  the  number  up- 
on the  muster  rolls  were  there  than  of  probably  any  other 
Division  in  General  Hood's  army.  And  judging  from  the 
late  speech  of  the  President  in  Macon,  n  much  larger  number 
than  the  usual  average  in  the  armies  of  the  Confederacy. 

As  I  uiidui;^>tand  your  letter,  you  deny  that  it  was  the  pur- 
pose of  the  President  to  disband  or  disorganize  the  Militia, 
and  say  he  intended  to  take  the  organization,  with  all  its 
officers,  and  maintain  it.  I  do  not  pretend  to  quote  your 
language,  but  state  what  I  understand  to  be  the  substance. 
Unfortunately  your  own  record  contradicts  you.  In  the  re- 
quisition made  by  you,' occurs  this  sentence  :  '•  Those  with- 
in the  limits  of  General  Hood's  Department,  will  report  to 
him  ;  those  outside,  to  the  Commandant  of  the  Department 
of  South  Carolina  aa  1  Geergia."  The  line  between  these 
Departments  cuts  in  two  Gen.  Smith's  Division,  and  prob- 
ably three  of  the  four  brigades  of  which  it  is  composed,  and 
the  requisition  orders,  that  part  of  this  Division,  and  those 
brigades  on  one  side  of  it,  to  report  to  General  Hood,  then 
at  Atlanta,  and  that  part  on  the  other  side  to  the  Command- 
ant whose  headquarters  were  at  Charleston.  But  this  was 
not  all,  it  amounted  to  an  order  in  advance,  if  I  responded 
to  the  call,  to  a  large  proportion  of  the  Militia  then  under 
arms,  to  leave  Atlanta  in  the  very  crisis  of  her  fate,  and  re- 
turn home  and  report  to  General  Jones,  whose  headquar- 
ters were  at  Charleston.  This  would  not  only  have  perma- 
nently divided  and  disbanded  the  militia  organization,  as  it 


existed  under  the  laws  of  the  State,  but  would  have  aided 
the  President  in  carrying  out  his  policy  already  referred  t», 
of  withdrawing  the  Militia  from  Atlanta  before  its  fall,  and 
compelling  armed  men,  then  aiding  in  ito  defence,  to  leave 
and  report  to  a  Commandant  upon  the  coast,  where  there 
was  no  attack  anticipated  from  the  enemy.  So  determined 
was  the  President  to  accomplish  both  these  objects,  that  he 
did  not  pretend  to  conceal  his  purpose,  but  incorporated  it 
into  the  requisition  itself. 

Past  experience  has  also  shown  that  the  President  wi'll 
surmount  all  obstacles  to  secure  to  himself  the  appointment 
of  the  officers  who  are  to  command  troops  under  his  con- 
trol. Soon  after  the  commencement  of  the  war,  Georgia 
tendered  to  him  an  excellent  brigade  of  her  most  gallant 
sons,  fully  armed,  accoutred  and  equipped,  with  twomonths 
training  in  camp  of  instruction.  He  refused  to  accept  it  as 
it  was,  but  disbanded  it,  and  refusing  to  recognize  the  Com- 
manding General  (though  every  officer,  I  believe,  in  the 
brigade,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  petitioned  to  have 
him  retained,)  scattered  the  regiments  into  other  Brigades. 
The  twelve  months  men  entered  the  service  with  officers 
elected  by  them,  and  he  accepted  them  with  their  officers. 
The  Constitution  of  the  Confederate  Slutes,  as  I  have  here- 
tofore most  conclusively  shown,  and  ;i<  the  Legislature  of 
the  State  has  resolved,  as  well  as  the  i.;vvs  of  the  State,  au- 
thorise them  to  elect  officers  to  fill  all  vacancies  that  occur. 
The  President  has  disregarded  this  right,  and  claims  and  ex- 
ercises the  right  to  appoint  all  such  officers  for  them.  His 
past  course,  as  well  as  the  plain  language  of  the  requisi- 
,  tion,  shows  that  you  misrepresent  the  President  v/hen  you 
deny  that  it  was  liis  purpose  in  making  the  requisition  to 
disband  the  Militia  ;  and  I  am  satisfied  that  I  do  him  no  in- 
justice, in  supposing  that  it  was  his  intention,  after  they 
were  disbanded,  to  appoint  his  own  partisans  and  favorites 
to  command  them. 

Reference  is  made  in  your  letter,  to  the  act  of  Congress, 
to  show  that  the  President  could  only  hold  the  Militia  six 
months  under' a  call  upon  the  Governor,  for  their  services. 
You  seem  to  forget  that  many  of  those  then  in  service,  for 
whom  he  called  had  already  served  nearly  four  months'.  And 
you  seem  to  suppose  that  I  will  be  unmindful  how  easy  it 
would  be  at  the  end  of  six  months  for  the  President  simply 
to  renew  the  call  for  another  six  months,  and  continue  this 
to  the  end  of  the  war,  and  in  this  way  keep  the  old  men  and 
boys  of  Georgia  constantly  in  service,  to  the  destruction  of 
all  her  agricultural  and  other  material  interest,  while  no 
such  requirement  is  made  of  any  other  State.  But  if  this 
were  not  possible  by  these  repeated  calls,  what  guaranty 
have  they  under  the  act  of  Congress  and  the  promise  of  the 
President,  that  they  would  be  disbanded  at  the  end  of  six 


months  ?  The  original  twelve  moaths  men  entered  the  serr 
vice  under  the  like  protection,  as  thej  supposed,  of  an  act 
of  Congress,  and  a  solemn  contract  with  the  President  that 
they  should  be  discha  rged  at  the  end  of  their  time.  But  be- 
fore the  time. expired  the  President  procured  another  act  ot 
Congress,  which  changed  the  law  on  that  subject,  and  be 
then  refused  to  be  bound  by  his  contract,  and  those  of  them 
who  survive  are  yet  in  service  near  the  end  of  the  fourth 
year.  Even  the  furloughs  promised  them  were  not  allow- 
ed. And  ministers  of  religion  who  made  a  contract  with 
the  Government  to  serve  for  one  year,  and  others  wiio 
agreed  to  serve  three  years  in  the  ranks,  are  held  after  the 
expiration  of  their  time,  when  they  would  be  embraced'm 
the  exemption  act,  which  protects  those  at  home,  if  the  • 
Government  had  kept  its  faith  and  discharged  them  accor- 
ding to  the  contract. 

In  this  connection  I  m.ust  also  notice  your  remarks  in  ref- 
erence to  the  six  months'  men  of  last  fall,  in  this  State.  And 
as  every  material  statement  you  now  make  upon  that  sub- 
ject is  contradicted  by  the  records  of  your  Department — 
made'  up  over  your  own  signature,  the  task  is  an  unpleas- 
ant one. 

You  say  "  it  had  been  designed  to  raise  troops  for  special 
defense  and  local  service  for  the  war  with  the  obligation 
of  service  as  the  general  rule  throu(rhout  the  State,  to  consti- 
tute a  part  of  the  provisional  army,  and  to  be  subject  to  the* 
call  of  the  President  when  needed."  If  this  statement  means 
anything,  it  is  intended  to  mean  that  the  call  was  made  on 
me  for  the  troops  to  serve  jhr  the  icar,  with  obligation  as  the 
irencral  rule,  to  do  service  throus^hout  the  State.  That  is  what 
you  now  say.  What  did  you  then  say  ?  I  quote  from  your 
requisition  of  6th  June,  1883, 

"  The  President  has  therefore  determined  to  make  a  re- 
quisition on  the  Governors  of  the  several  States,  to  furnish 
by  an  appointed  time,  for  service  within  the  State,  and  for 
the  limited  period  of  six  months,  a  number  .of  men,"  etc. 
Again,  in  the  same  requisition  you  say,  "  I  am  instructed 
by  the  President,  in  his  name,  to  make  on  you  a  requisitioa 
for  eight  thousand  men,  to  be  furnished  by  your  State,  for 
the  period  of  six  moxths  from  they//s/  d/iy  of  August  nexf^ 
unless  in  the  intermediate  time,  a  volunteer  force  organized 
under  the  law  for  local  defense  and  special  service,  of  at  least 
an  equal  number,  be  mustered  and  reported  as  subject  to  hi^ 
call  for  service,  within  your  State." 

This  does  not  look  much  as  if  the  call  was  made  for  troop* 
FOR  THE  WAR  !  Was  it  for  troops  to  sferve  sls  the  general 
rule  throughout  the  State  ?  I  quote  from  the  same  document. 
You  say,  "it  becomes  essential,  that  the  reserves  of  our 
population,  capable  of  bearing  arms,  etc.,  be  relied  on  for 
employment  in  the  load  dfense  of  important^cities,  and  in  re- 


24 

pelling,  ?w  emergencies  the  sudden  or  trons'icnt  incursions  of 
the  enemy."  Again,  *' local  organizations  or  enlistments 
liy  volunteering  for  limited  j^eriods  and  special  purpoics,  if  they 
can  be  iaduced,  would  afford  more  assurance  of  prompt  and 
efficient  action."  You  then  refer  to  the  two  acts  of  Con- 
gress for  local  defense  and  special  service,  and  enclose  cop- 
ies of  them  and  call  my  attention  to  them.  And  you  pro- 
ceed to  say,  "  under  the  former  of  these,  if  organizations 
could  be  effected,  with  the  limitations prescnUd  in  their  muster 
rolls* of  service  Only  at  home  or  at  spccijicd points  of  iu)])OT- 
tance  within  the  particular  State,  they  vv©uld  be  admirably 
adapted  to  obtain  the  desired  end."  In  speaking  of  the  in- 
ducements to  be  held  out  to  those  vi'ho  will  form  volunteer 
companies  under  the  act  of  Congress  you  speak  of  them  as 
*•  organizations  for  speck/ service  within  the  State,  under 
officers  of  their  own  selection,  and  with  the  privilege  of  ?t- 
.maini7ig  at  home,  m  the  pursuit  of  their  ordinary  avocations, 
unless  when  called  for  a  temporary  exigency  to  active  duty." 
In  reference  to  the  service  to  be  performed  by  these  organ- 
izations, you  then  use  this  language  : 

"Without  the  general  disturbance  of  a  call  on  the  mili- 
tia, the  organizations  nearest  to  the  points  of  attack,  would  al- 
ways be  readily  summoned  to  meet  the  emergency,  and  the 
population  resident  in  cities  and  their  vicinities  would,  without 
serious  interruption  to  their  business  sr  domestic  engagements, 
stand  organized  and  prepared  to  man  their  entrenchments 
and  defend,  under  the  most  animatingincitements,  their  prop- 
erty and  homes." 

You  remark  again,  "  After  the  most  active  and  least 
needed  portion  of  the  reserves  were  embodied  under  the 
former  law.  the  latter  would  allow  smaller  organizations  with 
more  limited  range  of  service,  for  objects  of  police  and  the 
pressing  contingencies  of  neighborhood  defense.  Could  these 
laws  be  generally  acted  on,  it  is  believed,  as  full  organiza- 
tions of  the  reserve  population  would  be  secured  for  casual 
needs,  as  would  be  practicable." 

There  is  not  a  word  in  any  of  this,  about  service  as  the 
general  rule  throughout  the  State.  But  every  expression  looks 
to  local  and  limited  services  in  sudden  emergencies,  such,  as 
the  sudden  incursions  of  the  enemy,  and  to  the  defense  of 
their  own  homes,  and  the  entrenchments  around  them,  by 
those  who  live  in  cities,  *'  to  neighborhood  defense,"  "casual 
raids,"  etc.,  with  the  clear  promise  to  all,  that  so  soon  as 
such  emergency  had  passed,  they  should  be  permitted  to  re- 
turn home  and  attend  to  their  "  ordinary  avocations,"  their 
"  business  or  dom.estic  engagements,"  etc.  The  troops  rec- 
ollect .how  this  promise  was  kept. 

But  you  charge  that  I  had  formed  nondescript  organiza- 
tions not  conforming  to  the  regulations  of  the  Provisional 
army,  scant  in  men'anad  abounding  in  officers,  with  every 


25 

variety  of  obligation  for  local  service,  generally  of  the  most 
restricted  character,  and  for  the  briffjieriod  of  only  six  months. 
Each  organization  formed  hj  me  was  in  conformity  to 
the  statutes,  copies  of  which  you  enclosed  as  the  guide  for 
my  action,  and  for  the  exact  time  designated  in  your  requi- 
sition over  your  own  signature.  Each  had  the  number  of 
men  specified  in  the  statutes,  and  no  one  of  them  had  a  super- 
numerf  ry  officer,  with  my  consent,  or  so  far  as  I  know  or  be- 
lieve. The  requisition  expressly  authorized  me  to  accept 
troops  for  local  defense,  of  the  most  restricted  character, 
with  *'  the  limitations  prescribed  in  their  muster  rolls,  of 
service  only  at  home  or  at  speci/icd points  of  importance."  But 
while  you  expressly  authorized  this  I  refused  to  do  it,  ex- 
cept in  case  of  companies  of  mechanics  and  other  workmen 
in  cities — the  operatives  in  factories,  and  the  employees  of 
rail  roads,  etc.,  when  the  nature  of  their  avocations  made  it 
actually  necessary.  In  all  other  cases  I  refused  to  accept 
the  companies  when  tendered,  if  their  muster  rolls  did  not 
cover  and  bind  them  to  defend,  at  least  one-fourth  ®ftho 
whole  territory  of  the  State.  Many  of  them  covered  the 
whole  territory  of  the  State  with  the  conditions  of  their 
muster  rolls.  •  Some  complaints  were  made  at  my  course, 
because  I  required  more  than  was  required  by  either  the 
acts  of  Congress,  or  the  requisition  of  the  Secretary  of  War. 
'  Another  charge  is,  that  when  called  out  "  scarce  a  decent 
division  of  four  thousand  men  could  be  mustered  for  the 
field,  and  then  only  for  six  monthsy  Your  obliviousness  of 
facts,  as  well  as  of  records,  is  indeed  remarkable.  Only 
those  whose  muster  rolls  embraced  Atlanta  and  the  territory 
between  it  and  the  Tennessee  line  were  called  out  till  near 
the  end  of  the  period  for  which  all  were  enlisted,  and  you 
got  a  division  of  many  more  than  four  thousand  within  that 
boundary. 

The  others,  over  twelve  thousand,  were  at  home,  engaged 
in  their  "  ordinary  avocations,"  ready  to  respond  to  your 
call  in  case  of  an  "  emergency,"  or  "  sudden  incursion  of 
the  enemy."  But  you  never  called  for  any  of  them  till  a 
short  time  before  the  end  of  the  term  of  their  enlistment. 
Those  you  then  called  out  you  never  even  armed,  and  it  was 
believed  by  them  that  they  were  only  assembled  for  the 
convenience  of  the  conscript  officers,  to  save  them  the 
trouble  of  searching  through  the  country  to  see  if  any 
among  them  were  subject  to  conscription.  Nobody  preten- 
ded that  there  was  any  "  emergency,"  or  "  sudden  incui^ion 
of  the  enemy"  at  the  time  of  the  last  call,  in  the  sections  of 
the  State  they  had  agreed  to  defen(,l.  I  have  gone  thus  ful- 
ly into  this  r*?cord  for  the  purpose  of  showing  the  palpable 
injustice  which  you-  attempt  to  do  me,  and  of  exposing  the 
flimsy  pretext  under  which  you  seek  to  defend  the  bad  faith 
which  was  exercised  by  the  Government  towards  the  gallant 


26 

men  who,  by  their  prompt  response,  more  than  doubly  fill- 
ed your  requisition  in  its  letter  and  spirit. 

As  a  last  means  of  escape  you  say  I  persistently  claimed 
that  they  should  be  held  and  regarded  as  militia.  "  In  that 
case  they  could  not,  if  dismissed,  be  recalled  on  emergency 
as  local  troops,  and  this  naturally  induced  their  detention 
for  the  full  period  of  their  limited  term  of  service."  I  should 
have  been  greatly  obliged  if  you  had  given  a  reason  why 
Militia,  mustered  into  service  for  the  period  of  su' wo«//<s, 
with  the  express  promise  that  they  should  be  permitted  to 
remain  at  home  in  the  pursuit  of  their  "ordinary  avoca- 
tions," except  in  "  emergencies"  or  to  meet  '*  sudden  and 
transient  incursions  of  the  enemy,"  could  not  receive  fur- 
loughs and  return  home  between  "  emergencies"  or  "  sud- 
den and  transient  incursions  of  the  enemy,"  and  reassemble 
on  the  recurrence  of  the  emergency.  Why  could  not  the 
same  men,  living  in  the  same  district,  united  for  the  same 
purpose,  to  defend  the  same  territory  against  "  sudden  and 
transient  incursions  of  the  enemy,"  have  received  furloughs 
to  return  home  and  attend  to  the  pursuit  of  their  •'  ordina- 
ry avocations,"  if  called  Militia  and  commanded  by  officers 
appointed  as  the  Constitution  provides,  by  the  States,  as  well 
as  if  called  local  companies,  and  commanded  by  officers 
appointe  1  by  the  President  ?  What  strange  magic  is  there 
about  the  President's  commission  which  would  enable  men, 
organized  for  service  under  officers  holding  it,  to  receive 
furloughs  when  not  needed  for  service,  which  the  same 
men,  organized  for  the  same  service,  could  not  get  if  their 
officers  received  their  commissions  in  the  constitutional 
mode  from  the  State?  If  the  same  companies,  composed 
of  the  same  officers  and  men,  may  be  temporarily  dismissed 
when  not  needed  for  the  service  they  have  engaged  to  ren- 
der, when  called  by  the  name  "  local  companies,"  why  may 
this  not  be  done  when  they  are  called  by  the  name  Militia  ? 

As  no  reason  can  exist  for  the  distinction  you  attempt  to 
draw  as  a  justification  ©f  the  President's  conduct,  none  was 
assigned  by  you.  It  is  simply  absurd  to  say,  that  the  mili- 
tia cannot  be  furloughed  and  sent  home  when  not  needed, 
to  be  re-called  when  needed.  But  for  the  interruption  of 
our  militia  organization,  which  grew  out  of  the  Conscript 
Act  of  February  last,  instead  of  ten  thousand,  I  could  have 
sent  nearer  thirty  thousand  to  Atlanta,  to  aid  in  its  defense. 

The  Legislature,  unfortunately  for  Georgia,  turned  over 
to  the  President's  control,  that  part  of  the  organized  mili- 
tia within  the  ages  specified  in  the  act  of  Congress,  a.nd 
•when  the  hour  of  peril  came,  out  of  all  the  large  number 
embraced  in  the  act  of  Congress,  and  turned  over  to  his 
control  by  the  resolution  ot  the  Legislature,  he  bad  n«t  a 
single  one  at  the  front  with  a  musket  in  his  hands,  to  aid  in 
the  defense  of  the  Stats.     Of  all  the  Confederate  reserves, 


27 

to  which  the  State  was  told  she  might  safely  looii  for  de- 
fense, not  a  man  with  a  musket  in  his  hands  was  at  the 
front  during  the  whole  march  of  the  Federal  army  from 
Dalton  till  its  triumphant  entrance  into  Atlanta.  And  if 
action  had  been  delayed  until  the  President  called,  as  shown 
by  the  date  of  his  call,  not  a  man  of  all  the  reserve  militia 
of  the  State  would  have  been  there.  The  Confederate  re- 
serves organized  were  not  sufficiently  numerous  to  guard 
the  unarmed  Federal  prisoners  in  the  State,  and  I  had  to 
furnish,  when  their  services  were  much  needed  at  the  front, 
a  battalion  of  militia  to  aid  them. 

The  interruption  by  the  State  authorities,  to  which  yoU' 
refer,  is  entirely  imaginary.  After  the  decision  of  the 
Legislature,  your  otficers  were  left  perfectly  free  to  execute 
the  law  of  Congress  in  all  its  rigor.  But  if  it  were  real, 
surely  the  President,  with  the  aid  of  his  large  force  of  offi- 
cers in  this  State,  should  have  been  able  to  get  somebody  to- 
the  front.  A  single  man  with  a  good  musket  might  have 
rendered  some  as.'^istance.  Or  if  this,  by  reason  of  ineffi- 
ciency, could  not  be  done,  if  he  had  ordered  his  corps  of 
conscript  officers  there,  as  I  ordered  the  State  officers,  they 
were  sufficiently  numerous  to  have  done  essential  service. 
For  even  this  favor,  at  that  critical  period,  the  people  of 
Georgia  would  have  been  under  great  obligations  to  him. 

I  must  not  forget  another  ground  of  the  call,  as  you  terra 
it,  which  was  that  some  of  these  troops  (the  ten  thousand 
organized  militia)  had  been  detailed  for  ©bjects  not  admiW 
ted  by  enrolling  officers  in  the  State  to  be  authorized  by 
Confederate  law,  and  others  were  claimed  as  primarily  lia- 
ble, or  previously  subject  to  Confederate  service.  This, 
you  say,  had  "  engendered  controversy,"  which  it  was  most , 
desirable  to  "  anticipate  and  preclude."  As  Confederate 
enrolling  officers  had  denied  the  right  of  the  State  to  make 
details,  and  had  claimed  certain  men  whom  the  Governor 
held  as  part  of  the  militia  of  the  State,  and  as  the  Gover- 
nor did  not  at  once  yield  to  the  pretensions  of  those  Con- 
federate officers,  but  was  disposed  to  cofitend  for  the  rights 
of  the  State,  the  President,  unwilling  to  allow  the  contro- 
versy, determined  to  relieve  the  ^tate  of  her  whole  militia; 
by  making  requisition  for  it,  and  taking  it  all  into  his  own 
hands,  which  would  "  anticipate  and  preclude"  any  further 
controversy  ;  as  the  State,  having  no  militia  left,  i>eed 
have  no  further  controversy  about  her  right  to  any  particu- 
lar individuals  as  part  of  it. 

This  new  discovery  of  the  President  of  the  mode  of  set- 
tling a  controverted  right,  and  the  magna nimity  and  states- 
manship displayed  by  him  in  this  affiiir,  cannot  be  too  highly 
appreciated.  'By  imitating  his  example  in  future,  the 
stronger  party  can  always  make  a^speedy  settlement  with 
the  weaker,  without  allowing  any  unpleasant  controversy 
about  rights. 


2S 

Your  assertion,  that  my  past  action  and  public  expres- 
sions have  given  encouragement  to  our  enemies,  to  the  mor- 
tification of  many  patriotic  citizens  of  the  Confederacy, 
may  be  properly  disposed  of  by  the  single  remark,  that  if 
we  may  judge  of  the  encouiagement  of  our  enemies  by  the 
general  expression  of  their  public  journals,  the  President 
gave  them  more  delight,  hope  and  encouragement,  by  his 
single  spe6!ch  at  Macon,  than  all  the  past  acts  and  public 
expressions  of  my  lif«3  could  have  done,  had  I  labored  con- 
stantly to  aid  a«d  encourage  them.  He  who  can  satisfy  the 
enemy  that  two-thirds  of  the  men  who  compose  our  gal- 
lant armies  are  absent  from  their  posts,  affords  them  delight 
and  encouragement  indeed,  as  they  will  no  longer  doubt,  if 
this  be  true,  that  the  spirit  of  our  people  is  broken,  and 
"that  oar  brave  defenders  can  no  longer  be  relied  on  to  sus- 
tain our  cause  in  the  field.  All  remember  the  mortification 
which  this  speech  of  -the  President  caused  to  the  patriotic 
citizens  of  the  Confederacy.  If  it  had  been  true,  surely  it 
should  not  have  been  publicly  proclaimed  by  the  President 
But  I  am  satisfied  it  was  not  true,  and  that,  in  making  the 
statement,  the  President  did  grievous  injustice  to  the  brave 
men  who  compose  our  gallant,  self-sacrificing  armies. 

It  has  also  been  agreeable  to  you  to  speak  ©f  my  action 
as  springing  from  a  spirit  of  ojjposition  to  tJie  Confederate  Gov- 
ernment, and  animosity  to  the  Chief  Magistrate.  I  have  but 
a  word  of  reply  to  this  unjust  and  ungenerous  attack.  Some 
.men  are  unable  to  distinguish  between  opposition  to  a  gov- 
ernment and  unwillingness  blindly  to  endorse  all  the  errors 
of  an  administration,  or  to  discriminate  between  loyaUy  to 
a  cause  and  loyalty  to  their  master.  My  loyalty  is  only 
dwQ  to  my  country  ;  you  can  bestow  yours  where  your  in- 
terest or  inclinations  may  prompt. 

I  do  not  consider  that  the  point  you  attempt  to  make 
a,bout  the  pay  and  subsistence  of  the  militia,  while  under 
the  Confederate  General  commanding  the  Department,  has 
in  it  even  a  show  of  plausibility.  They  were  accepted  by 
him  for  the  time  as  an  organization,  and.  while  under  his 
control,  he  has  the  absolute  command  of  them,  and  the 
Governor  of  the  State  does  not  exercise  the  slightest  control 
•ver  them.  What  possible  pretext  for  saying  that  he  may 
not  order  this  division  subsisted  and  payed  as  well  as  any 
oth^r  division  under  his  command  ?  There  is  just  as  much 
reawn  for  saying  that  a  divisien  of  Georgians  under  Gen. 
Lee  should  not  be  subsisted  and  paid  by  the  Confederacy, 
while  under  his  command,  as  that  this  division  under  Gen. 
Hood  should  not  be  subsisted  and  paid  while  he  command- 
<^^,them.  The  truth  at  the  bottom  of  all  this  is  so  visible, 
imX  it  cannot  be  concealed  even  by  an  attenipt  to  muddy 
*  tb^"^ater.  , 

I  find  the  st.itement.  emphasized  by  you,  that  the  Con- 


29 

stitution  of  the  Confederate  States  does  not  cortftr  oq  the 
States  the  power  to  keep  trpops  in  time  of  war.  As  the 
States  were  sovereign  and  possessed  all  power  when  they 
formed  the  Constitution  which  gj^ve  life  to  the  Confederate 
Government,  neither  that  GoTernmeuf  n«r  the  Constitu- 
tion could  confer  any  power  on  the  States.  ThCy  rc/ained 
all  that  they  did  not  confer  upon  it.  But  admit  your  state- 
ment, and  what  follows  i  You  were  obliged  to  admit  in 
the  next  sentence,  that  the  States  did  reserve  that  powerl 
Having  reserved  it,  they  are  certainly  authorized  to  exercise 
it.  As  you  admit,  thoy  not  only  reserved  the  p«wer,  but 
the  reservation  naturally  includes  whatever  is  necessary  to 
accomplish  the  object  of  it.  But  you  then  attempt  to  ex- 
plain it  a\vay,  by  denying  that  the  reservation  means  any- 
thing, and,  in  eflect,  contend  that  the  Confederate  Govern- 
ment may  take  from  the  State  the  last  one  of  the  troops 
which  she  has  reserved  the  power  to  keep,  without  violat- 
ing the  reserved  rights  of  the  State.  In  oiher  words,  the 
State  has  plainly  reserved  the  right  to  keep  troops  in  time 
of  war,  when  actually  invaded.  But  this  right,  you,  in  ef- 
fect, say,  is  subordinate  to  the  will  of  the  President,  wiio 
may  take  the  last  one  of  them  from  her  whenever  he  choos- 
es to  do  so. 

According  to  your  mode  of  reasoning,  if  a  State  or  an 
individual  delegates  certain  powers  to  an  agent,  and  reserves 
certain  other  powers,  the  reserved  powers  are  limited  by, 
and  subordinate  to  the  delegated  powers,  and  maybeen-^. 
tirely  destroyed  by  them  when,  in  the  opinion  of  the  agent,' 
this  is  necessary  to  enable  him  to  execute,  to  their  fullest 
extent,  the  delegated  powers.  In  other  words,  the  reserved 
powers  are  to  be  construed  strictly.,  and  the  delegated  pow- 
ers liberally,  and  the  reserved  are  to  yield  to  the  delegated 
whenever  there  is  apparent  conflict,  I  confess  I  had  not 
understood  this  to  be  the  doctrine  of  the  State  Rights  or 
Jeftersonian  school.  I  had  been  taught  that  the  delegated 
powers  are  to  be  construed  strictly,  and  in  case  of  a  delega- 
tion of  powers  with  certain  reservations,  that  the  delegated 
powers  are  limited  and  controlled  by  the  reserved  powers. 
This  well-estinblished  rule  is  repudiated  by  you,  when  it 
conflicts  with  the  purposes  of  the  Confederate  administra- 
tion, and  you  claim  that  the  power  reserved  by  the  States 
to  Jccci)  troops  in  time  of  war,  when  actually  invaded,  simply 
means  that  they  may  keep  them  till  the  Confederate  Exec- 
utive chooses  to  call  for  and  take  the  last  tne  of  them  out 
of  their  control. 

To  justify  all  this,  you  are  driven  to  the  usual  plea  of 
necessity.  Y«u  say  it  was  necessary  that  the  whole  militia 
of  Georgia  should  be  in  Confederate  service,  and  subject, 
not  to  my  judgment  or  disposal,  but  to  the  c  mtrel  of  the 
constitutional  Commander-in-Chief. 

I  deny  that  the  President  is,  er  ever  can  be,  without  the 


30 

consent  of  the  State,  the  constitutional  Commander-in- 
Chief  of  the  xcholc  militia  of  the  State.  When  we  take 
the  whole  context  together,  the  Constitution  is  plain  upon 
this  point.  He  is  declared  to  be  the  Commander-in-Chief 
of  the  Arr]2y  ^^^  Kavy  of  the  Confederate  States,  and  of 
the  militia  of'the  several  States,  uhen  called  into  the  actual 
service  of  the  Confederate  States. 

Congress  has  power  to  provide  for  calling  forth  the  mi- 
litia to  execute  the  laws  of  the  Confederate  States,  suppress 
insurrections  and  repel  invasions. 

Congress  has  power  to  provide  for  organizing,  arming 
and  disciplining  the  militia,  and  for  governing  sitch  part  of 
them  as  may  be  employed  in  the  service  of  the  Confederate 
States.  Then  comes  the  qualification.  The  States  reserve 
the  rigljt  to  keep  troops  iu  time  of  war,  when  actually  in- 
vaded. If  she  is  not  invaded,  under  provision  made  by  Con- 
gress, they  may  \)e  caHed  forth,  if  the  emergency  requires 
it.  If  she  is  invaded,  she  may  Jcecp  such  part  of  them  as 
she  thinks  proper,  under  her  reserved  riglit,  and  they  can- 
not be  taken  Vk'ithout  her  consent.  The  whole  case  is  in  a 
nutshell.  Congress  may  provide  for  calling  forth  the  mili- 
tia, and  for  governing  such  j^urt  of  them  as  are  employed  in 
the  service  of  the  Confederate  States.  The  President  is. 
for  the  time,  Commander-in-Chief  of  all  who  are  so  citi- 
jiloycd.  And  all  may  be  so  cmjdcnjed,  except  such  as  the  State 
determines  to  keep,  by  virtue  of  her  reserved  right  in  time 
of  war,  when  actually  invaded.  These  Conj^ress  has  no 
right  to  call  forth,  and  no  right  to  provide  for  governing; 
and  of  these  the  President  is  not  the  constitutional  Com- 
inander-in-Chief,  but  the  Governor  of  the  State  is,  so  long 
as  the  State  kcejis  them,  and  she  has  an  uuquestionable  right 
to  kc(p  them  as  long  as  the  invasion  of  her  territory  lasts.. 

This  I  understand  to  be  the  constitutional  right  of  the 
State  of  Georgia.  By  this,  as  her  Executive,  I  stand,  and 
regard  with  perfect  indifference  all  assaults  upon  either  my 
loyalty  or  motives  by  those  who  deny  this  right,  or  seek  to 
wrest  it  from  her,  to  increase  their  own  power  or  gratify 
their  own  ambition. 

A  word  as  to  the  use  I  shall  make  of  this  militia,  and  of 
•all  the  troops  at  the  command  of  the  State.  No  sentence 
in  my  former  letter  is  an  "  inconsiderate  utterance."  No 
Tv^ord  in  it  justifies  the  construction,  that  I  v/ill  array  my 
State  in  "  armed  antagonism  against  the  Confederacy." 
On  the  contrary,  I  will  use  the  troops  to  support  and  main- 
tain all  the  just  rights  and  constitutional  powers  of  the 
Confederacy,  to  the  fullest  extent.  No  State  is  truer  to  the 
Covfedcranj  than  Georgia ;  and  none  will  make  greater 
sacrifices  to  maintain  its  rights,  its  just  powers  and  its  in- 
dependence. The  sacrifices  of  her  people  at  home,  and 
the  blood  of  her  sons  upon  the  battle  field,  have  abundantly 


31 

established  this  truth.  But  while  I  will  employ  all  the 
force  at  my  command  to  maiDtain  all  the  constitutional 
rights  of  the  Confederacy  and  of  my  State,  I  shall  not  hes- 
itate to  use  the  same  force  to  protect  the  same  rights  against 
external  assaults  and  internal  usurpations.  Those  vrho  im- 
agine themselves  to  be  the  Confederacy,  and  consider  only 
loyalty  to  themselves  as  loyalty  t«  it,  and  who  recognize  iu 
neither  the  people  nor  the  States  anj^  rights  which  conflict 
with  their  purposes  or  future  designs,  doubtless  see' in  this 
the  "foreshadowing  of  a  guilty  pu.rpose."  It  is,  to  say  the 
least  of  it,  a  fixed  purpose. 

'  It  is  not  only  my  right,  but  my  duty,  to  uphold  the  con- 
stitutional rights  and  liberties  of  the  people  of  Georgia,  by 
force,  if  necessary,  against  usurpations  and  abuses  of  power 
by  the  Central  O^ovcrnment.  The  militia  is,  under  the 
Constitution,  one  of  the  proper  instrumentalities  for  that 
purpose.  There  is  scarcely  a  single  provision  in  the  Constitu- 
tion,for  the  protection  of  life,  liberty  or  property  in  Georsia, 
that  has  not  been  and  is  not  now  constantly  violated  by 
the  Confederate  Government,  through  its  officers  and 
agents.  ' 

It  has  been  but  a  short  time  since  one  of  the  stores  of 
the  State  of  Georgia,  containing  property,  in  the  peaceable 
possession  of  the  State,  was  forcibly  entered  by  a  confeder- 
ate officer,  and  the  property  taken  therefrom  by  force.  I 
had  no  militia  present  at  the  time  to  repel  this  invasion  of 
the  rights  of  the  sovereign  State,  but  should  have  had 
them  there  soon  if  the  property  had  not  been  restored. 

A  single  Confederate  Provost  Marshal,  in  Georgia,  ad- 
mits that  thirty  citizens  and  soldiers  have  been  shot  by  his 
guard,  without  his  right  to  shoot  citizens  being  questioned 
till  within  the  last  few  days,  when  he  was  greatly  enrr.ged 
that  a  true  bill  for  murder  should  have  been  found  by  a 
grand  jury  against  one  of  them  for  shooting  down  a  citizen 
is  the  streets,  who  offended  him  by  questioning  h.is  authori- 
ty over  him.  Every  citizen  in  the  State,  both  man  and 
woman,  is  arrested  in  the  cars,  streets  and  highways,  who 
presumes  to  travel  without  a  pass.  They  are  arrested 
without  law,  and  imprisoned  at  pleasure  of  Government 
officials.  The  houses,  lands  and  effects  of  the  pewjle  of 
Georgia  are  daily  seized  and  appropriated  to  the  use  of  the 
Government  or  its  agents,  without  the  shadow  of  law, 
without  just  compensation,  and  in  defiance  of  the  decision 
of  the  Supreme  Judicial  Tribune  ot  the  State?  and  her 
officers  of  justice  are  openly  resisted  by  the  officers  of  the 
Confederate  States.  The  property  of  the  families  of  sol- 
diers, now  under  arms  to  sustain  the  Confederacy,  is  forci- 
bly taken  from  them  without  hesitation,  and  appropriated, 
in  many  cases,  without  compensation. 

In  this  state  of  things,  the  militia  are  necessary  to  uphold 


the  civil  tribunals  of  the  State,  and  will  be  used  for  that 
purpose  whenever  the  proper  call  is  made  by  the  proper 
authorities. 

No  military  authority,  State  or  Confederate,  can  be  law- 
fully usfed  for  any  other  purpose  than  to  uphold  the  civil 
authorities,  and  so  much  of  it  as  the  Constitution  of  my 
country  has  confided  to  my  hands  shall  be  used  for  that 
purpose,  whether  civil  society,  its  Constitution  and  laws 
shall  be  invaded  from  without  or  from  within.  Measured 
by  your  standard,  this  is  doubtless  disloyalty.  Tested  by 
mine,  it  is  a  high  duty  to  my  country. 
Respectfully,  etc, 

JOSEPH  E.  BROWN. 


CONFEDERATE  STATES  OF  AMERICA,    > 
War  Department,  Richmond,  Va.,  December  13, 1864.  > 

HIS  EXCELLE.XCY  JOS.  E.  BROWN, 

Governor  of  Georgia,     ' 

Macon  Ga. : 

• 

Sir — Your  letter  of  the  14th  ult.  has  been  received.  In 
accordance  with  the  rule  I  have  prescribed  to  mj^self  in  my 
correspondence  with  you,  I  shall  avoid  all  notice  of  the  ob- 
servations in  your  letter  which  do  not  in  my  opinion  form 
matter-proper  for  official  communication  ;  and  therefore 
much  of  your  letter  will  have  no  response. 

An  Act  of  Congress  of  the  27th  ot  February,  1S61,  pro- 
vided :  ''That  to  enable  the  Government  of  the  Cpnfede- 
rate  States  to  maintain  its  jurisdiction  over  iill  questions  of 
peace  and  war,  and  to  provide  for  the  public  defence,  the 
President  be,  and  he  is  hereby  authorized  and  directed  to 
assume  control  of  all  railitaiy  operations*  in  every  State, 
having  reference  to  or  connection  vi'ith  questions  between 
said  States,  or  any  of  them,  and  powers  foreign  to  them." 
On  the  6th  March  of  the  same  year  they  empowered  the 
President  ''to  employ  the  militia,  military  and  naval  forces 
of  the  Confederate  States  to  repel  invasion,  maintain  the 
rightful  possession  of  the  Confederate  States  in  every  por- 
tion of  the  territory  belonging  to  each  State,  and  to  secure 
the  public  tranquility  and  independence  against  threatened 
invasion."  These  Acts  of  Congress  do  not  exceed  the  com- 
petency of  that  body  under  the  Constitution.  They  con- 
fer plenary  powers  upon  the  President  to  employ  all  the 
military  power  of  the  Confederate  States  to  meet  the  ex- 
traordinary emergencies  that  might  arise,  and  which  were 
then  foreshadowed.  You  do  not  deny  the  existence  of  the 
emergency  anticipated  and  provided  for  by  Congress.  You 
simply  contend  that  you  should  employ   the  militia  instead 


•38 

of  the  President.  That  you  should  conduct  «ow^  military 
operationa,  rather  than  the  President,  and  that  Congress 
judged  unwisely  in  confiding  power  to  him,  rather  than  to 
youi;8elf.  In  my  judgment,  these  Acts  of  Congress  bind 
you,  both  as  a  citizen  and  art  otticer,  and  you  owe  prompt, 
cordial  and  unhesitating  obedience  to  them. 

In  stating  the  parallel  case  of  the  conduct  of  the  refrac- 
tory Governors  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  in  the 
war  witii  Giea^  Britain,  during  the  administration  ol  Mr. 
Madison,  I  was  aware  that  the  former  had  the  support  of 
the  opinion  of  the  Judges  of  that  State,  as  contained  in  a 
letter  addressed  to  him,  and  as  cited  by  you.  Tht-y  had  al- 
so the  support  of  their  State  Legislatures,  and  of  the  re- 
solves of  the  Hattford  Convention,  composed  of  delegates 
from  tliose  and  other  States.  The  authority  of  these  dif- 
ferent public  officers  and  agencies  support  your  Exeellenciy  ; 
but  the  judicial  opinions  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New 
York,  and  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  as 
rendered  in  the  line  of  their  duty  in  cases  before  them,  and 
the  general  sentiment  ot  the  people,  and  the  uniform  action 
of  the  autlioritics  of  loyal  States,  aiford  no  such  support. 

Maj.  Gen.  Cobb  intorms  the  Departujent  that  he  has 
made  a  satisfactory  adjustment  of  this  difficulty,  and  I  dis- 
miss the  subject  without  further  reujark.  , 

In  the  summer  of  1803,  it  became  apparent  that  unless 
the  population  of  the  different  States  who  were  not  em- 
braced m  the  Acts  of  Congress  of  the  IGth  April  and  27th 
September,  1SG2,  providing  for  the  public  defence,  usually 
termed  Conscription  Acts,  were  organized  for  service,  that 
the  ccmntry  would  be  exposed  to  frequent  and  injurious  in- 
cursions from  the  enf^my,  by  which  it  would  be  devastated 
before  the  means  of  defence  could  be  carried  to  the  place 
of  invasion^  A  [)roposar  for  the  organizatioh  was  [)repared 
and  communicated  to  the  Governors  of  all  the  Statef='. 
This  plan  was  to  organize  all  the  non-conscript  population 
in  companies  under  the  Acts  of  Congress  to  provide  for  the 
local  defence 'or  special  service.  These  Acts  provided  only 
for  voluntaty  enlistments,  and  an  alteniative,  or  rather  an. 
auxiliary  proposition,  was  presented  to  fticilitate  the  ac- 
complishment of  this  leading  and  prominent  object. 

I  addressed  you  on  the  Gth  of  June,  1863,  a  letter  on  the 
subject,  a  telegram  on  the  12th,  and  a  second  letter  on  the 
19th  of  the  same  month.  The  General  Orders  of  the  De- 
partment, embodying  its  views  as  to  the  nature  of  these 
volunteer  organizations,  and  disclosing  the  details  of  the 
measure,  were  published  by  the  Adjutant  and  Inspector 
General,  the  22d  June,  18G3.  These  orders  required  that 
those  companies  shouhl  be  formed  for  service  during  the 
war  ;  that  they  were  not  to  be  called  into  service  except 
in  cases  of  emergency  ;  that  they  were  not  to  be  employed 
3 


34. 

beyond  the  limits  of  the  State  ;  that  when  the  emergencj 
terminated  they  were  to  be  dismissed  to  their  homes  ;  that 
service  in  those  companies  wonld  excuse  from  service  as 
militia  ;  that  those  companies  wore  preferred  to  militia  or- 
ganizations ;  that  they  were  to  be  armed  by  the  Confede- 
rate States  as  far  as  necessary,  and  w«re  to  be  paid  by  them 
while  in  service.     A  copy  ot  this  order  is  enclosed. 

These  views  were  disclosed  in  the  letters  I  have  before 
referred  to.  The  extracts  you  have  made  from  them  to  de- 
fend your  conduct,  do  not  represent  the  views  of  the  De- 
partment fairly. 

In  my  letter  of  the  6th  of  June,  I  state  tjie  necessity  for 
organization  of  the  non-conscript  population ;  the  many  and 
grave  objections  to  the  use  of  the  militia  ;  the  superiority 
of  the  system  of  defence  proposed  by  voluntary  organiza- 
tioiiSi  for  home  defence,  and  the  motives  that  might  be  ad- 
drosisid  to  the  people  to  adopt  that  mode  of  defence.  I 
state  111  that  letter  that :  "For  this  (the  organization)  the 
legislation  of  Congress  has  made  a  full  provision  by  two 
laws,  one  entitled  An  Act  to  Provide  for  Local  Defence  and 
{Special  Service,  approved  August  Slst,  18GJ  ;  the  other 
entitled  An  Act  to  authorize  the  Formation  of  Volunteer 
Companies  for  Local  Defence,  approved  October  13th. 
ISGL*;  to  which  your  attention  is  invited,  and  of  which,  as 
thev  are  brief,  copies  are  appended.  Under  the  former  of 
these,  if  organizations  could  be  effected  with  the  limita- 
tions presented  in  the  muster  rolls  of  service  only  at  home, 
or  at  specified  points  of  importance  within  the  particular 
State,  they  would  be  admirably  adapted  to  obtain  the  de- 
sired ends,  of  calling  out  those  best  qualified  for  thiC  ser- 
vice; of  employing  them  only  when  and  so  long  as  they 
mijiht  be  needed;  of  having  them  animated  with  esprit  dii 
corfi^<<;  reliant  on  each  other  and  their  selected  officers,  and 
of  thus  securing  the  largest  measure  of  activity  and  ef- 
ficiency, perhaps,  attainable  from  other  than  permanent 
soldiers.  After  the,most  active  and  least  needed  portion* 
of  the  reserves  were  embodied  under  the  former  law,  the 
latter  would  allow  smaller  organizations  with  more  limited 
range  tf  service,  for  objects  of  police  and  the  pressing  con- 
tingencies of  neighborhood  defence.  Could  these  laws  be 
generally  acted  on,  it  is  believed  as  full  organization  of  the 
reserve  population  would  be  secured  for  casual  needs  as 
would  be  practicable." 

I  closed  that  letter  by  saying:  "lam  instructed  by  the 
President  in  his  name  to  make  on  you  a  requisition  for  five 
thousand  men,  to  be  furnished  by  your  State  for  service 
thferein,  unless  in  the  intermediate  time  a  volunteer  force, 
organized  under  the  lavs^  for  local  defence  and  special  ser- 
\ice  of  at  least  a7i  eqiuil  ?iumber  he  mustered  and  reported  as 
subject  to  his  csil]  for  service  within  your  Stdte.''^ 


36 

In  ray  telegram  of  the  121k,  I  say:  ''Your  assurance  of 
co-jperation  is  gratifying.  Organizations  under  the  law  of 
the  Provisional  Congress  are  preferred,  because  of  their 
longer  term  of  duratioyi  and  greater  adaptation  for  ready  call 
on  temporary  serrice  and  then  for  dismissal  to  their  ordi- 
nary pursuits." 

In  my  letter  of  the  19th  of  June,  I  repeated  the  argu- 
ments in  favor  of  organizations  for  local  defence  in  pref- 
erence "to  militia  organizations  or  organizations  on  a  fcasis 
similar  to  the  mi-litia  lor  a  limited  period  of  service."  I 
stated  to  you  that  "I  did  not  suppose  there  would  be  such 
difficulties,  delays  or  confusion  as  you  anticipated  ;  that 
the  process  of  forming  the  organizations  is  very  simple  and 
familiar  to  your  people  as  having  been  generally  adopted 
in  volunteering  for  the  Provisional  Army.  There  will  be 
no  occasion  to  send  on  to  the  Department  here  anything 
but  the  muster  rolls,  which,  under  the  rrgulations  to  he  issued 
may  be  verified  by  a  judge,  justice  or  colonel  of  militia. 
I  think,  with  deference  to  your  opinion,  the  whole  matter 
of  prompt  and  easy  accomplishment." 

The  regulations  referred  to  were  published  on  the  2f?d  of 
June,  1SG3.  They  declare  their  object  to  be  to  afford  "in- 
structions as  to  the  method  by  which  such  organizations 
may  be  made,  and  the  privileges  they  may  claim;"  and 
with  these  regulations,  the  Act  of  Congress  of  August  Slstr 
1861,  was  published,  v»'hich  authorized  the  President  to  ac- 
cept the  services  of  volunteers  of  such  kind  and  in  such 
proportion  as  he  may  deem  expedient  to  serve  for  such 
time  as  he  mayprescribe,  for  the  defence  of  exposed  places 
or  localities,  or  sach  special  service  as  he  may  deem  expe- 
dient. 

The  general  features  of  these  regulations  I  have  already" 
stated.  They  define  with  exactness  the  conditions  as  to 
time  of  enlistment,  the  place  of  service,  the  duration  of 
their  special  and  particular  service  upon  the  Presidential 
call.  These  were  the  organizations  that  you  were  expected 
to  form,  and  you  seem  to  have  entirely  overlooked  or  for- 
gotten the  duty  that  you  undertook  to  fulfill. 

It  is  not  pretended  by  you  that  you  carried  into  effect 
this  plan  for  the  organization  of  the  State  reserves,  and  that 
your  promised  co-operation  v.-as  unproductive  of  the  results 
anticipated  from  it.  You  followed  the  suggestions  of  your 
own  mind,  and  did  not  act,  and,  so  far  as  this  Department 
knows,  did  not  attempt  to  act,  conformably  to  the  views 
presented  to  you.     , 

I  made  no  complaint  of  your  failure  to  do  this,  nor  was 
the  failure  made  the  subject  of  any  observation,  until  you 
assumed  the  ground  of  being  the  injured  party,  from  which 
you  railed  a*t  the  President  and  the  Department,  as  wai)t- 
in^  in  faith  to  you  ;  while   the  fact  was,   if  there  was  any 


36 

■want  of  faith  or  breach  of  duty,  you  alone  were  tha  guilty 
party.  I  recur  to  the  sulj^ject  now  sinipl\-  to  correct  the 
jnisrepresentation  of  the  conduct  of  the  Department  by 
your  garbled  extracts  from  its  correppondencc — extracts 
which  do  not  exhibit  fairly  the  subject  under  consideration. 
I  abstain  now  from  imputing  your  conduct  to  bad  faith  to 
the  Department,  in  repelling  the  wanton  and  reckless  as- 
sault upon  the  integrity  of  the  administration  of  this  De- 
partment. 

Your  remarks  upon  the  patriotism  and  services  of  the 
people  of  Georgia  will  have  no  contradiction  from  me.  I 
fully  appreciate  both.  I  have  not  believed  that  they  cCuld 
be  seduced  from  their  fidelity  to  the  Confederate  States,  or 
their  duties  under  their  constitution.  I  have  not  supposed 
that  they  could  be  betrayed  into  an^^  desertion  of  the  com- 
mon cause.  The  unanimous  voice  of  the  Legislature  of  the 
State  was  not  required  to  assure  me  of  tiieir  truth  and  loy- 
'  alty.  It  has  but  confirmed  the  opinion  that-  the  seeds  of 
baleful  jealousies,  suspicions  and  irritation  that-  have  ^o  in- 
dustriously been  scattered  among  them,  have  been  wholly 
unproductive  of  the  fruit  anticipated. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  in  the  future  that  all  the  energy  that 
has  been  thus  en:)];)loyed  v^-ill  be  diverted  to  the  legitimate 
object  of  achieving  the  independence  of  the  Confederate 
States,  securing  the  peace  and  tranquility  of  thiD  Confede- 
racy, and  promoting  thereby  the  true  greatness  of  Georgia. 
Verv  respectfully,  your  ob'dt  serv't, 

'JAMES   A.  SEDDON, 

Secretary  of  War. 


EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT,      ) 
Macon,   Ga.,  Jan.  6,  1SG5.    > 

HON.  JAMES  A.  SEDDON,  SECRETARY  OF  WAR: 

Sir — It  becomes  my  duty  to  notice  your  communication 
of  13th  December,  which  reached  me  a  few  days  sint'e. 

After  citing  the  acts  of  Congress  of  SSlH  February  and 
the  Gth  March,  1861,  conferring  power  upon  t\u^  President 
to  assume  control  of  military  operations  in  the  States,  and 
to  call  forth  the  militia,  etc.,  you  declare  that  Congress  in 
passing  these  acts  did  not  exceed  its  competency  under  the 
Constitution,  and  you  then  insist  on  a  construction  of  these 
acts,  whicli  denies  the  right  reserved  by  the  States  to  keep 
troops  in  time  of  war,  and  which  confers  upon  the  President 
the  pov/er  to  call  upon  one  State  for  aclass  of  her  popula- 
tion which  are  not  subject,  under  any  law  of  Congress,  to 
do  military  duty,  and  for  which  he  makes  no  similar  requi- 
Eition  upon  any  other  State. 

The  acts  which  you  quote  are  not  properly  susceptible  of  any 


37 

such  construction,  as  you  are  obliged  to  place  upon  them  t& 
make  them  serve  your  purpose.  If  they  were,  there  could 
be  no  doubt  upon  the  mind  of  any  lawyer  who  understands 
the  rudiments  of  constitutional  law,  that  Congress  had  no 
power  or  authority  to  pass  them.  No  candid  lawyer  will 
insist,  for  a  moment,  that  an  act  of  Congress  can  take  from 
the  States  the  right  which  they  have  plainly  reserved  ia 
the  Constitution  to  keep  troops  in  time  of  war,  or  that  the 
President  has  any  power  or  control  over  any  troops  which 
a  State  may  so  keep,  or  that  he  can  justly  and  legally  make 
requisition  for  them,  or  that  he  has  any  legal  or  just  ground* 
of  complaint  if  a  State  ibfuses  to  turn  them  over  to  him  if 
he  should  transcend  his  legal  authority  by  making  the  re- 
quisition. Nor  will  any  lawyer  insist  that  the  President 
has  any  power  to  make  requisition  for  niilitia  which  Con- 
gress has  not  made  provision  for  *^  organizimr,'^  or  for  men 
or  boys  not  subject  to  militia  duty  under  the  laws  of  Con- 
gress. As  these  acts  of  Congress  could  coiifer  upon  the 
President  no  pov^^ers  which  are  denied  to  him  by  the  Con- 
stitution, and  as  his  late  requisition  upon  the  Executive  of 
this  State  was  in  clear  violation  of  her  reserved  rights  under 
the  Constitution,  I  am  surprised  that  you  should  attempt  to 
justify  this  usurpation  of  undelegited  powers  by  a  resort  to 
Congressional  action  as  directory  to  the  President  to  violate 
the  rights  of  the  States. 

In  your  farmer  Jetter,  you  declared  that  my  refusal  to  fill 
this  requisition  of  the  President,  was  analogous  in  ''all  par 
ticulars"  to  the  conduct  of  the  Governors  of  Massachusetts 
and.  Connecticut  in  the  last  war  with  Great  Britain,  in  re- 
fusing to  iill  the  requisition  made  upon  them  by  the  Presi- 
dent Oj'  die  United  -States.  In  my  answer,  I  showed  too 
conclusively  for  reply,  that  the  cases  were  not  analogous  ia 
any  particuhir.  Without  attempting  to  make  good  your  as- 
sertion, or  to  controvert  a  single  position  in  my  argument, 
or  to  trace  the  analogy  \u  a  single  particular,  you  again  al- 
lude to  the  subject  in  your  last  letter  by  saying  :  "In  sta- 
ting the  poralhl  case  of  the  conduct  of  the  refractory  Gov- 
ernors of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,"  etc.  Now  no 
one  knew  better  than  yourself  that  the  cases  were  in  no  de- 
gree parallel,  and  that  you  could  neither  trace  the  parallel 
lines  nor  point  out  the  analogy. 

To  avoid  a  mistatement  contained  in  your  former  letter 
that  "the  judicial  tribunals  determined  adversely  to  th« 
pretensions  of  these  Governors,"  you  say  you  were  aware 
that  the  former  (the  Governor  of  Massachusetts)  had  the 
support  of  the  opinion  of  the  Judges  of  that  State  and  ot" 
the  Legislatures  of  those  States,  etc.;  and  that  the  author- 
ity of  these  support  me  in  my  position.  Here  again,  you 
are  as  incorrect  as  I  have  shown  you  to  be  in  almost  every 
important  statement  which  has  been  made  by  you.     There 


38 

is  nothing  in  the  opinion  of  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme 
dourt  of  Massachusetts  sustaining  the  Governor  of  that 
State,  which  gives  the  slightest  support  to  my  position,  or 
that  has  the  least  bearing  upon  the  controversy  between  us. 
What  were  the  points  decided  by  that  opinion  of  the  Court? 
They  were  substantially  the  following: 

Ist.  That  when  the  President  made  a  requisition  upon 
the  Governor  of  a  State  for  the  militia  to  repel  threatened 
invasion,  it  was  the  right  of  the  Governor  to  judge  whether 
the  emergency  existed.     He  decided  that  it  did  not. 

2.  That  when  the  militia  were  called  out  under  a  requi- 
sition from  the  President,  no  Federal  officer  but  ths  Presi- 
dent pi  person  had  the  right  to  command  them.  These  were 
the  positions  of  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  and  the 
opinion  of  the  Judges  sustained  him. 

Neither  of  these  questions  has  arisen  in  this  discussion.  I 
have  not  denied  the  existence  of  the  exigency,  but  foresaw 
it  and  had  the  reserve  militia  in  the  field  in  battle  with  the 
enemy  months  before  the  President  seems  to  have  seen  it^ 
at  least  months  before  he  realized  it  to  an  extent  to  cause 
him  to  make  the  requisition. 

I  have  not  raised  the  question  as  to  the  right  of  a  C«>ufed- 
erate  officer,  other  than  the  President  in  lyrrson,  to  command 
this  militia  so  called  out  by  me  while  iii  ■;ervice.  On  the 
contrary,  I  had  placed  them  under  the  (;<>  umand  of  a  Con- 
federate General  long  before  the  requisition  was  made. 
With  these  facts  before  you,  a  little  reflection  cannot  fail  to 
show  you  how  much  mistaken  you  are  when  you  make  the 
assertion  that  the  decision  of  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme 
Couit  of  Massachusetts,  or  of  the  Legislatures  of  those  two 
States  sustain  my  course  or  any  position  I  have  taken.  As 
there  is  vmxther  analogy  nor  par/iUcl  between  the  cases  cited 
by  you  and  my  own  case,  no  decision  sustaining  the  Gov- 
ernors in  those  cases  can  either  sustain  or  condemn  my 
course  upon  an  entirely  diflerent  state  of  facts  and  circum- 
stances. 

But  you  say  the  judicial  opinions  of  the  Supreme  Court 
uf  New  York,  and  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Uni- 
ted States  as  rendered  in  the  line  of  their  duty,  afford 
no  such  support.  As  you  have  not  shown  how  the 
action  of  the  Governors  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut, 
or  the  correctness  of  their  position  could  have  come  judi- 
cially before  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York,  or -the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States  ;  and  as  you  have  not 
been  able  to  cite  any  case  in  which  the  question  of  the  con- 
duct of  those  Governors  was  ever  before  either  of  said 
Courts,  I  am  left  to  suppose  that  you  are,  as  I  have  shown 
you  to  be  in  so  many  instances,  again  unfortunate  in  your 
statement  of  facts,  and  that  in  attempting  to  sustain  an  er- 
roneous statement  in  your  other  letter,  you  have  added  an- 
other to  former  mistakes. 


89 

As  an  excuse  for  dismissing  the  subject  without  further 
attejiipt  to  sustain  yoitr  position,  you  reruaric  that  Major 
Greneral  Cobb  informs  the  Department  that  he  has  made  a 
satisfactory  adjustment  of  this  ditficulty.  While  there  has 
been  perfect  harmouy  between  General  (  obband  myself  in 
7uilitary  matters  froui  the  commencement  of  Siierman's  ad- 
vance^ upon  Atlanta  to  tlie  present  time,  as  there  has  been 
between  Generals  Johnston,  Hood,  Beauregard  and  myself; 
there  has  been  no  adjustment  whatever  between  me  and 
General  Cobb,  of  what  you  are  pleased  to  term  "  this  diffi- 
culty.'' I  have  neither  by  word  nor  act  done  anything  to 
recognize  the  right  of  the  President  to  make  this  requisi- 
tion, or  to  admit  the  obligation  of  the  Governor  to  fill  it.  I 
have  stood  in  reference  to  Genaral  Cobb  as  I  have  towards 
YOU  and  the  President  upon  the  reserved  rights  of  the  State, 
and  have  refused  to  relinquish  the  control  of  the  State  over 
her  reserved  militia',  while  she  determines  to  keep  them,  or 
to  fill  a  requisition  which  the  President  had  no  right  to 
uiake.  I  am  happy  to  find  that  upon  reflection  you 
seem  to  see  yeur  error,  and  are  prepared  to  accept  this  as  a 
salisfactory  adjiistmmf  o(  a  controversy  which  you  hare  un- 
justly provoked,  and  in  which  you  cannot  sustain  yourself 
upon  any  known  principle  of  reason  or  law. 

You  devote  a  greater  part  of  your  letter  to  another  at- 
tempt to  justify  your  bad  fiiith  to  the  Georgia  troops  called 
out  under  the  President's  requisition  of  6th  June,  1863,  and 
to  prove  contrary  to  the  plain  language  of  the  requisition, 
that  they  were  culled  for  during  the  war.  You  complain  of 
what  you  call  my  "garbled  extracts,"  and  you  quote  ex-^ 
tensively  from  the  requisition,  but  you  are  particularly  care- 
ful to  so  "garble"  your  own  extracts  as  not  to  quote  that 
essential  part  of  it  twice  stated  in  the  letter,  as  I  have  al- 
ready shown,  that  they  were  required  on]y  {or  a ix  months.  It 
was-  upon  this  requisition,  with  the  two  acts  of  Congress, 
which  you  sent  with  it  as  the  guide  for  my  conduct,  that  I 
promised  co-operation  with  you  in  the  organization.  The 
promise  was  redeemed  both  in  letter  and  spirit,  and  your 
call  for  eight  thousand  men  {i\ot  Jive  thousand  as  you  now  eF- 
roneously  state  in  your  last  letter)  was  met  with  more  than 
double  the  number  required,  organized  in  strict  accordance 
with  the  plain  language  of  the  requisition  and  the  acts  of 
Congress  on  that  subject. 

As  candor  and  trath  at  least  are  expected  of  one  occupy- 
ing your  position,  it  is  painful  to  witness  the  shifts  to 
which  you  resort  to  do  injustice  to  my  State,  and  to  mis- 
represent the  conduct  of  her  Executive  in  a  matter  where 
he  more  than  doubly  filled  your  requisition. 

I  am  now  favored  by  you  with  a  copy  of  a  General  Order 
issued  by  Adjutant  General  Cooper,  weeks  after  the  requi- 
sition was  made,  which  I  io  not  recollect  that  I  ever  saw, 


49 

till  I  received  your  letter,  and  you  complain  that  I  did  not 
carry  out  3'our  views  as  expressed  in  that  order.  I  obey  no 
orders  from  your  Department;  nor  was  this  order  furnished 
to  me  whv?n  you  made  the  requisirion,  or  during  the  organi- 
zation of  the  troops  with  even  a  request  that  I  conform  to 
it.  I  was  asked  by  you  to  organize  the  troops  in  accord- 
ance with  your  letter  containing  the  requisition  and  the 
two  acts  I'f  Congress,  of  which  you  enclosed  copies,  for  six 
moiU/is  service,  with  the  pledges  contained  in  your  letter,  to 
which  I  referred  in  my  last  letter,  that  they  should  only  be 
called  out  for  sudden  emergencies,  etc.  This  I  did  on  my 
part,  and  you  refused  to  redeem  the  pledges  made  on  your 
part.  This  is  the  vi-'hole  case,  and  I  here  dismiss  this  part 
of  the  subject  whh  niy  regrets  that  justice  to  myself  and 
the  large  numbwr  of  citizens  of  my  fc^tat6  wiio  suffered  un- 
necessarily by  your  action,  has  made  it  a  duty  for  me  to  ex- 
pose you¥  bad  taith  and  the  misstatements  to  which  you  have 
resorted  to  sustain  an  interpretation  of  your  requisition 
which  its  plain  language  unquestionably  precludes. 

By  the  expression  in  your  letter  that:  *'It  (the  unanim- 
ous voice  of  the  Legislature  of  this  State)  has  but  confirm- 
ed the  opinion  that  the  seeds  of  baleful  jealousies, suspicions 
and  irritation  that  have  so  industiiously  been  scattered 
among  them '(the  people)  have  been  wholly  unproductive  of 
the  fruits  anticipated,"  I  am  left  to  conclude  that  in  your 
disingenuous  effort  by  insinuation  to  call  in  question  my 
motives  in  jyrnicstmg  against  the  President's  usurpations  and 
abuses  of  power,  you,  as  is  your  habit,  base  your  assertion 
upon  an  assumption  of  flicts  which  do  not  exist.  The  Leg- 
islature of  this  State  at  the  late  session  passed  no  resolu- 
tions, and  expressed  no  unanimous  voice,  upon  any  question 
connected  with  the  conduct  of  the  Administration  of  whieh 
you  are  a  member,  nor  did  they  utter  in  its  behalf  any  voice 
of  approbation. 

While  the  people  of  this  State  are  true  and  loyal  to  our 
cause,  they  are  not  unmindful  of  tke  great  principles  of  Coa- 
Btitutional  Liberty  and  State  Sovereignty  upon  which  we 
entered  into  this  struggle,  and  they  will  not  hold  guiltless 
those  in  power  who,  while  charged  v^'ith  the  guardianship 
of  the  liberties  of  the  people,  have.subverted  and  trampled 
personal  liberty  under  foot,  and  disregarded  the  rights  of 
priTate  property,  and  the  judicial  sanctions  by  w^hicb,  in  all 
free  governments,  they  are  protected. 

The  couise  pursued  by  the  Administration  towards  Geor- 
gia, in  her  late  hour  of  extreme  peril,  has  shown  so  con- 
clusively, as  to  require  no  further  argument  or  illustration, 
the  wisdom  of  the  reservation  made  by  the  States,  in  the 
Constitution,  of  the  right  to  keep  troops  in  time  of  war. 
Georgia  has  furnished  over  one  hundred  thousand  other 
gallant  sons  to  the  armies  of.  the  Confederacy.     The  great 


41. 

body  of  these  men  was  organized  into  regiments  and  bat- 
talions of  infantry  and  artillery,  which  have  been  sustained 
by  recruitT  from  home,  from  month  to  month,  to  the  extent 
of  our  ability.  Those  who  survive  of  these  regiments  and 
battalions  have  become  veterans  in  the  service,  who,  if 
permitted,  would  hav«i  returned  to  their  State,  and  render- 
ed Sherman's  march  across  her  territory  and  the  escaue  of 
hie  army  alike  impossible.  1  asked  that  this  be  allowed,  if 
assistance  could  not  be  otherwise  afforded.  It  was  denied 
us,  and  the  State  has  been  passed  over  by  a  large  army  of 
the  enemy.  Hundreds  of  miles  of  h^r  railroad*  have  beea 
for  the  present  rendered  useless.  A  broad  belt  of  her  ter- 
ritor3^  nearly  four  hundred  miles  in  length,  has  been  de- 
vastated. Within  this  belt  most  of  the  public  property,  in- 
cluding several  court  houses  with  tiie  public  records,  and  a 
vast  amount  ofprivate  property,  including  many  dwellings, 
gin  houses,  much  cotton,  etc.,  have  been  destroyed.  The 
city  of  Atlanta,  with  several  of  the  villages  of  the  State, 
have  been  burnt;  the  Capital  has  been  occupied  and  dese- 
crated by  the  enemy,  and  Savannah,  ihe  seaport  city  of  the 
State,  is  i  ow  in  his  possession.  During  the  period  ofSher- 
man's  march  from  Atlanta  to  Milledgeville,  there  were  not 
one  thousand  men  of  all  the  veteran  infantry  regiments  and 
battalions  of  Georgians,  now  in  Confederate  service,  upon 
the  soil  of  this  State.  Nor  did  troops  from  other  State* 
fill  their  places. 

Thus  "abandoned  to  her  fate"  by  the  President,  Geor- 
gia's best  reliance  was  her  reserve  militia  and^  State  line, 
whom  she  had  organized  and  still  kfeps,  fis.by  ,the  Constitu- 
tion she  has  a  i'ight  to  do.  VVithont  them  nuicli  more 
property  must  have  been  destroyed  and  the  city  of  Macon, 
80  impoitant  to  the  State  "and  Confederacy,  must  have 
shared  the  fate  of  Atlanta  and  Savannah,  while  Augusta, 
with  the  small  Confederate  force  by  which  she  was  saved 
divided  with  Macon,  must  also  have  fallen. 

These  troops  whom  Georgia  krep/!  have  not  only  acted 
with  distinguished  gallantry  upon  many  bloody  battle- 
fields upon  the  soil  of  their  own  State,  hut  they  have,  when 
an  important  service  could  be  rendered  by  them,  marched 
into  the  interior  of  «ther  States.  The  noble  conduct  of  the 
Troup  County  Militia,  in  their  march  to  Pol  lard,  Alabama, 
to  aid  in  the  protection  of  the  people  and  property  of  that 
State  against  the  devastations  of  the  enemy,  and  the  heroic 
valor  displayed  by  Maj.  General  G.  W.  Smith  and  part  of 
his  comniand  then  with  him  at  Honey  vlill,  in  South  Caro- 
lina, where  he  won — with  the  Georgia  Jklilitia,  her  State 
Line  and  a  small  nnmber  of  gallant  Confederate  troops 
most  of  whom  were  Georgians — one  of  the  most  signal  vic- 
tories of  the  war  in  proportion  to  the  number  engaged, 
fully  attest  the  correctness  of  my  assertion  in  their  behalf. 


•4a 

In  view  of  these  facts,  with  the  late  bitter  experience  of 
the  people  of  this  State  fresh  in  his  recollection,  t^ie  Geor- 
gia statesman  must  indeetl  be  a  blind  worshipper  of  the 
President,  who  would  advocate  the  policy  of  turning  over 
to  his  control,  to  be  carried  out  of  the  State  at  his  bidding, 
old  men  and  boys  not  subject  under  the  laws  of  Congress 
to  military  service,  and  of  a  class  not  required  by  him  of 
any  other  State. 

I  cannot  close  this  communication  without  noticing  cer- 
tain expressions  in  your  letter,  which  are  not  unfrequently 
used  by  persons  in  authority  at  Richmond,  such  as  "refrac- 
tory Governors,"  "loyal  States,"  etc.  Our  people  have 
become  accustomed  to  these  Imperial  utterances  from  those 
who  wield  the  central  despotism  at  Washington,  but  such 
«'xpres.sions  are  so  utterly  at  variance  with  the  principles 
upon  which  we  entered  into  this  cont^-st  in  1S61,  that  it 
sounds  harshly  to  our  ears  to  have  the  officers  of  a, Govern- 
ment, which  is  the  agent  or  creature  of  the  States,  discu^ 
sing  the  loijali'j  and  disloyalty  of* the  sovereign  States  td 
their  central  agent — the  loyalty  of  the  creator  to  the 
creature — which  lives  asd  moves  and  has  its  being  only  at 
the  will  of  theStates;  and  to  hear  their  praise  ofthe.Gov-  . 
i.Tnors  of  sovereign  States  for  their  subserviency,  or  their 
denunciation  of  those  not  subservient  as  "refractory."  If 
our  liberties  are  lost,  the  fatal  result  will  not  be  properly 
chargeable  to  disloyal  States  or  "refractory  Governors,"  but 
it  will  grow  out  of  the  betrayal,  by  those  high  in  Confede- 
rate authority,  of  the  sacred  principles  of  the  Constitution, 
which  they  have  sworn  to  defend. 

Had  some  officials  labored  as  successfully  for  the  public 
good  as  they  have  assiduously  to  concentrate  all  power  in 
the  Confederate  Government,  and  to  place  the  liberty  and 
property  of  every  citizen  of  the  Confederacy  subject  to  the 
caprice  and  control  of  the  President,  the  country  would 
not  have  been  doomed  to  witness  so  many  sad  reverses. 
Nor  Vv'ould  we  now  be  burdened  to  support  the  vast  hoard 
of  supernumerary  officers  and  political  favorites,  who  are 
tpiartered  upon  us  to  eat  out  our  substance,  while  they 
avoid  duty  and  danger  in  the  field,  having  little  other  duty 
to  perform,  but  to  endorse,  indiscriminately  and  publicly, 
by  newspaper  communications  arid  otherwise,  fevery  act  of 
the  President,  whether  right  or  wrong  ;  and  to  reconcile 
the  people,  by  every  means  in  their  power,  to  the  constant 
encroachments  which  are  made  upon  their  ancient  usages, 
customs  and  liberties. 

If  all  these  favorites  ofpowei  who  are  able  for  active 
duty,  and  whose  support  in  the  style  in  which  they  live, 
while  all  around  them  is  misery  and  want,  costs  the  people 
millions  of  dollars,  were  sent  to  the  field  and  compelled  to 
do  their  part  in  battle,  the  President  would  have  no  reason 


43 

to  make  illegal  reqaisitions  upon  this  State  for  her  old  men 
and  boys,  who  are  not '  subject  to  his  control  uader  any 
law,  State  or  Confederate  ;  but  he  would  soon  be  able,  by 
heavy  reinforcements,  to  fill  the  depleted  ranks  of  the  ar- 
mies of  the  Confederacy.  As  the  President  is  clothed  with 
all  the  power  necessary  to  compel  these  political  favorites 
to  shoulder  arms  and  aid  in  driving  back  the  invader,  the 
subject  is  respectfully  commended  to  your  consideration  as 
well  worthy  of  energetic  action. 

I  am,  very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 
"  ^  JOSEPE  E.  BROWN. 


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